


Wings

by Kaquarius, Katharine Prince (Kaquarius)



Series: Dragon and Phoenix Saga [1]
Category: Winx Club
Genre: F/M, Gen, Remake, Season 1 Remake, and i've only seen the trailer, but i hate it, fuck netflix, i got mad so i decided to do something about it, i haven't watched the remake yet, slight musa/riven, so my opinion might be trash, the remake is ass, winx club remake
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:48:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 85,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28060431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaquarius/pseuds/Kaquarius, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaquarius/pseuds/Katharine%20Prince
Summary: Bloom Peters was normal.She lived with a normal family, in a normal house, in a normal neighborhood, went to a normal school, and saw a normal fairy battling an ogre.Wait. That's not normal.Not normal at all.______________________If you would've told me that I would become a fairy, go to a magic school, make fairy friends, be constantly hunted down by power-hungry witches, find out my whole life was a lie, have my powers forcefully stripped away from me, and be the center of possibly the biggest magic war in a while two or so years ago, I would've thought you were crazy.But you're not crazy. Because it's happening.Right here. Right now.
Relationships: Bloom/Sky (Winx Club), Brandon/Stella (Winx Club), Tecna/Timmy (Winx Club)
Series: Dragon and Phoenix Saga [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2055495
Comments: 3
Kudos: 22





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> i got mad at netflix, so I made a rewrite.
> 
> this is mainly being worked on at ff.net, so head over there if you want to get things faster.
> 
> the series will follow seasons one through three (as much as i love season four, it wasn't necessary), with alterations that me, my mother ('cause she's my cowriter), or both of us put in there. it still follows the basic plot and episode setup, so don't be too worried.
> 
> techna (yes, i am spelling her name like that :p) and flora get more screentime. because i love them, and sometimes, they were ROBBED.
> 
> i have a voice cast.
> 
> bloom - jenna von oy  
> stella - cherami leigh  
> flora - mimi davila  
> musa - kimiko glenn  
> techna - katelyn gault
> 
> i guess that's all. anything i did not cover that i will be doing, you'll find it in the story. just know that it'll be the same setup, but small and larger things will become more expanded on, along with a couple alterations to some of the general winx club plot. because i have a lot of ideas, and i intend on using them.

Do you remember your childhood? You know, the time when things were simpler and you could be wild and free without anyone judging you? I clearly remember mine. When I was little, I was so interested in fairytales. Fairytales were a huge part of my life. But my favorite mythical creature of all time was a fairy. Most girls would like mermaids or unicorns or - hey - maybe even fairies, but I considered myself at that time to be a die-hard fairy fan. I used to buy all the fairy related books at the bookstore and get nothing else. There was a time in my life when my bedroom was covered with fairy lights, fairy posters, fairy everything! The kids at school used to make fun of me for liking fairies, saying they were "for babies." I got sent to the principal's office for hitting them in the mouth. They were not for babies! I believed that fairies could be strong warriors, just like mermaids which were way more popular than fairies. But then I grew up and I stopped believing in fairies and got into boy bands and parties, you know, like all teenagers do. Until a while ago, I had forgotten about my fairy phase. A lot happened in my teenage years; I started high school, got a boyfriend, and graduated as valedictorian. An That was what I wish I could say, but in reality, it didn't go out like that all.

I am going to ask you this question, and I want you to answer it completely honestly: What if you learned that everything you thought was a myth was real?

You know what you're thinking: _Bloom, you're a crazy person. How could myths me real_? Believe me, I thought the same thing the day it all happened. I was in such a belief and I had to take it all in so quickly! Believe me or not, I don't care; that's not going to stop me from telling my story. You might begin to believe me. You might think I'm just completely crazy, but continue listening to my story. Honestly, I don't care. This story was how my life changed forever. Maybe for the better, maybe for the worst. I have no opinion about it.

Okay, I already hear you yelling, "Bloom! You talk too much! Just get to your story already!" Okay, okay! I'll stop talking. But when I get to a part you don't understand, don't come crying to me.

* * *

It all started on one particular day in August. School was going to begin in a week, and fifteen-year-old me was drooling all over my pillow. Light had entered my bedroom, shining on my little bunny, Kiko (I had got him for Christmas when I was seven. I don't actually know where Mom and Dad got him from, because he isn't from the shelter…).

I live in Gardenia, a small town in Pennsylvania, but nonetheless, still a pleasant place to live. Crime is low, restaurants are the best, and the schooling here has great reviews. But there was one problem: it was so boring! Nothing exciting ever happened here. The most exciting thing that happened here was the tornado of '13. And barely any damage happened! For a teenager like me, I thought anywhere else in the world was better than boring, old Gardenia.

I am ugly sleeping, hair in my open mouth, my bed sheets sprawled on the floor, my gaming headset askew on my red hair. Last night, I was quickly doing my English essay since it was due today. But nobody else knew that. I should at least get a B. I was tired at the time; it was midnight! Mrs. Applebee better have pity on me!

I am in a deep sleep, ignoring the soft snoring of my pet, my bedroom door opening, and Mom whispering in my ear, "You're late for school, honey."

I jump out of bed, swearing under my breath, trying to take a shower, pull on some clothes, and put my stuff into my backpack. I cannot believe that my alarm clock didn't go off! The bus has probably already left, and I' m going to have to ask Mom for a ride to work! Once I finish putting on my shirt, I take my phone off the charger, but when I see the calendar, my face goes red.

_August 26, 20XX_

_12:17 PM_

It's still summer vaca. Mom lied to me.

"Mom! Really? That was not funny!" All of this wakes up Kiko and he hops sleepily onto my bed.

Mom giggles. "But you got up."

I roll my eyes, kick off my shoes, and pull the covers back over me. "I'm going back to bed. Goodnight."

"Oh no, you don't!" Mom pulls the covers right back off of me and frowns at me. "Why did you go to bed so late last night?"

"I was...uh…" I'm trying to figure out a good lie. I don't like lying, but Mom and Dad said if I continued doing my work last minute, I would get grounded. "I was studying!" It's partially true.

"Studying, huh?" Mom picks up the Overwatch box on the floor. "Is playing a video game studying, Bloom?"

"Technically, it is. You have to learn the controls and the test is the entire game."

"Yeah-huh. And-uh-what is this?" She waves two sheets of paper at me. Oops. It's my essay. I quickly finished it and told myself to grab it off the printer, but I fell asleep before I could do it.

"Is this your essay, Bloom?"

"No!" I say that louder than I want. "It's just some documents I was playing on…"

"Oh, really?" Mom looks at the papers again. "You were playing around with Edgar Allen Poe?"

"...Possibly…?" I say sheepishly.

Mom begins to look angry. "Bloom, I told you what would happen if you procrastinated again!"

"I know, I know."

My mother takes a deep breath, then looks back at me. "I just don't know what we're going to do with you!"

"I'm sorry, Mom. I won't do it again, I promise."

"You're darn right you're not going to do it again, because next summer, you're going to be my personal assistant at the grocery store!"

No! I don't want to help her at the store! It's so boring! I'll have less freedom than I do already!

Mom leaves my bedroom and walks back down the stairs to the kitchen. Kiko jumps onto my shoulder and I follow Mom down into the kitchen. When I get downstairs, I see Dad grabbing his wallet. He turns to look at me and he smiles. "Ah, it's our lovely flower Blooming!" He laughs at his own joke. I wasn't in the mood to laugh right now.

"Dad, tell Mom I can take care of myself! I don't need to work at the grocery store next summer!"

Dad looks a bit bewildered. "I sense tension…. What's going on?"

Mom places her dishtowel onto the edge of the sink. "Bloom procrastinated on her summer reading essay. Again!"

Dad looks at me.

"I usually get a good grade! I got ninety-six percent last year!"

Dad looks at Mom.

"Wha-Mike!"

Dad looks at me.

"Dad!"

Dad looks at Mom.

"Mike!"

"Dad!"

Dad shakes his head. "You two work it out! I have work to get to!"

I roll my eyes and flop down onto the couch in front of the TV. "C'mon! Why do I have to constantly be in your eye and earshot? The other kids at school can drive themselves places and Lucas Gray has his own place! Why can't I be free to do what I want?"

"Because you're not old enough," says Dad. 

"Not old enough? Dad, I am fifteen! I'm going into my Sophomore year! And I have my driver's permit. What's the point in owning a permit and not getting it licensed?"

"Well…" Mom walks over to me. "Actually, your father and I were talking and… Well, we thought about it and we decided to get you something to ride around in."

My eyes light up. A car? Did they finally get a car? "Really? What is it?"

"It's in the garage waiting for you." Dad winks at me.

I get super excited and run outside to the garage, Kiko barely hanging on. I wonder what kind of car it is. Maybe it's a Corolla or a Chevrolet… I don't care as long as I get to have a car. But when I get there, there's no car. Just an old, red bike with a basket with flowers.

Really? A bike? That's what my parents get me? ...is there a car hiding underneath the bike?

"See? Don't you like it?" Dad asks from inside the kitchen. No, Dad. I absolutely hate it. They know I don't care for the color red and it's a bike. Ughhhhhh! I would love this gift I didn't have my driver's permit! But I can't tell my parents I don't like it. It probably cost a lot.

"Yeah… I love it, thanks." As much as I try to sound happy, it comes out monotone. Dad still stands there, expecting me to start riding it. I go back inside and grab an apple from the basket. I climb onto the bike and open the garage door.

"I'm gonna head to the park," I tell Mom and Dad. "I'll be back later."

"Okay!" Mom replies, looking skeptical. "Be back before five."

I begin pedaling away from my house and down the street. Now that Mom and Dad are out of earshot, I groan to myself. C'mon! My parents must think I am six-years-old. What kind of teenager with a driver's permit wants a bike? If anyone sees me with this bike, my life is over!

When I reach a red light, I hear a voice that makes me cringe. "Bloom!"

I turn my head. Standing in front of her multi-million dollar mansion (she constantly talks about how rich she is, so I think I know how much money her home is: six million, I think?) and looking at me like I was dog crap was Mitzi Cortez. She was the same age as me, but acted like she was six. Her family was the richest people in Gardenia, and she never let me forget it. She wasn't here for most of the summer (thank God!), and I hoped she wouldn't come back until school actually started, but unfortunately, she was back early. Ughhhhhhh! The only thing different about her was her hair. She had gotten the tips dyed yellow. Bleh.

"You're still here?" she asks me, looking at her nails.

"Obviously," I answer. "I'm not magic. I can't be in two places at once."

"Whatever. Oh, look." Mitzi points to my bike. "Looks like your parents finally found something they can afford. Where did they buy it, a landfill?" She laughs cruelly, and I feel my blood boil. Oh, I want to get off the bike and throw it at her face.

"Ugh, whatever. Do you want something?" I'm praying this light changes soon.

"I just wanted to show you what my parents got me." She points to her bright red convertible. "They just bought it for me. I wanted it in black, though."

"Cool," I say, not even trying to sound interested. "See you at school, Mitzi."

"Bye, bye." Mitzi waves shortly. Luckily, the light changes and I head on my way. Kiko attempts to throw a carrot at her, but I stop him.

"Don't do it, Kiko," I say. "If the carrot touches her, it'll go bad."

We continue to drive. Once I get to another stoplight, I pull up next to a large fire truck, the ones Dad drives.

"Hello, there, Bloom!" the driver calls. I look up and see Mr. Charles, one of Dad's fellow firefighters. He's at least two years older than Dad, with a large, brown beard with gray showing in a lot of places.

"Hello, Mr. Charles!" I say.

"Where are you headed?"

"The park."

"Cool. When's school starting again?"

"The first. I'll be starting my Sophomore year."

"Sophomore year." Mr. Charles shakes his head in disbelief. "My, how time flies! You promise you'll stay on your grades?"

I nod. Technically, it's not a lie; I'll try to stay on my grades, but I can't promise it.

"Alright. Have a great day, Bloom."

"You, too!"

Once the light changes, I'm back on my journey. As I pass houses and see people, I realize I know more people than I think. In fact, I think I basically know everyone here. Mrs. Mason, Rodney, that old cat lady…

That's definitely why I want to leave. It's so boring around here. Nothing ever happens! I just want something to happen to me! Something big! Something that'll change my life forever!

It takes me a while to finally arrive at the park, but once I do, I can finally relax my legs, because I am tired! It's not easy going through the entire town only riding a bike.

I climb off of my bike and go into the shady part of the park. The place is kind of a forest, but not a forest. It has a dirt path that joggers run on. Kids play around the place and their parents just stay behind, looking at Facebook.

I let Kiko out of the basket, grab an apple, and sit down underneath a tree.

"Hey, Bloom!"

I look around, trying to see who called my name. Standing there close by my tree is my ex-boyfriend, Andy.

I know, I broke up with him, but I sort of regret it, because Andy is cute. He has rich, dark hair and bright blue eyes. He's tall and fair and he has a handsome smile. We were a great couple during our Sophomore year, but we broke up, because his sister is Mitzi herself, and it was hard being together with her trying to ruin everything.

"Oh, hi, Andy!" I say, standing up.

"We're back just in time," he says. "Our trip was fun. I have pictures if you would like to see them."

"I knew you guys came back," I responded. "I saw Mitzi on the way here."

"Oh. That's unfortunate." He chuckles a little. He looks around for a moment. "Where's Kiko? I haven't seen him in a while."

"Oh, he's playing around somewhere." I gesture outwards.

"Cool. He's a very odd bunny." Andy places his hands in his back pockets. "Well, I should be on my way. Mitzi's starting to blow up my phone." She is. I can hear his phone buzzing like crazy.

"Alright. See ya, Andy!" I say, watching him walk away. He waves back.

Sometimes I wish I was still his girlfriend, because he's a really sweet guy and likes making people angry and doesn't like conflict. But Mitzi has to come in and ruin everything.

I sit back down underneath the tree and take a bite out of my apple. Before I could even get comfortable, Kiko comes running out of the forest, looking completely terrified. Once he reached me, he flopped down onto his face, but got back up rather quickly and began frantically squeaking and tugging at my pant leg.

"What is it, Kiko?" I ask. I could get no exact answer out of him. He just continued explaining it to me in his weird bunny language and pointing towards the distance. I assume someone's messing with him, so I grab a stick lying next to me. Kiko's been harassed before, and I don't let many people get too close to my bunny, so someone's gonna lose an eye!

I follow Kiko into a clearing into the forest, ready to start swinging when instead of seeing normal people, I see something very unexpected.

Two people were obviously fighting, but not just any type of fighting. One was a girl who was actually really pretty. She had long, golden hair put into two pigtails which were held up by a tight, gray band. She's wearing a gold, sparkly top with a see-through yellow piece down her stomach, and golden knee-high boots. And the weirdest part was that she wore gray see-through wings which sparkled. She also held a scepter which had a bright light coming from the middle of the circle of the scepter. Her opponent (well, opponents) were strange, red creatures which had sharp teeth and seemed to be unfriendly. I originally thought they were cosplaying until I realized how real the creatures were and the fact that the girl had dried blood on her outfit and looked kind of beat-up.

The creatures were jumping on her and she hit them left and right. They seemed to want to grab her scepter. _"Dazzling Light!"_ she cries, and amazingly, a beam of light shoots out of her hand, hitting the creatures and making them fly all the way into the air and out of sight.

"Oh my…" I sigh. I've never seen anything like this! How was she doing that? What the heck am I witnessing?

One of the creatures (I assume they're ghouls) is thrown back into the darkness, but is caught by something and crushed. A figure steps into the light and he's even uglier than his ghouls. He's yellow and hairy and fat and tall and wore ugly overalls. But at the same time, he was pretty menacing. "Ghouls!" he snarls. "Stop lying there and get her scepter!"

"You can try," says the girl coolly. "You've tried seven times to get my Crystal, and how many times have you succeeded?"

The ogre-looking thing becomes angry and rams into her. She screams in pain and gets thrown all the way across the field.

Ouch. That's gotta hurt.

The fairy spits out blood and notices her scepter is out of her hands and lying close by. When she tries to get it, the ogre yells, "Ghouls! Stop her!" Quickly, the ghouls grab the fairy, holding her down so she can't move. One of the ghouls grabs her scepter.

"Hey! I'm not done—" But before she can finish her sentence, one of the ghouls places their grimy hands over her mouth.

Crap. I don't know if I'm imagining things or if this is actually real. I want to help, but I can see the size of the ogre and I don't feel like being sent to the hospital. But I have to do something or else the ogre will win, and the fairy might die!

The ogre snatches the scepter out of the ghoul's hands and laughs maniacally. "Finally, the Light Crystal is mine!"

"Hey, let her go!"

For a moment, I thought that was someone else out there. Someone risking their life to help a stranger. Until I realize that someone is me, and I'm standing out there, trying to protect the poor girl. I pray that I don't die. I have things I have to do today.

"Or else."

"Or else what?" asks the ogre, not looking in the least bit scared.

Oops. Didn't think that through.

The ogre does a shooing motion with his hand and says simply, "Ghouls, attack."

I become quite scared and in fear, hold my hand out in front of me. "Stay back!" I close my eyes as well, preparing for the pain I was going to have to face.

…

Wait, nothing happened. I thought…? I open my eyes. Around me is a large, red, hot bubble, protecting me from the ghouls. The ghouls who had tried to attack are lying close by, obviously in pain. How did I do that? Was that the girl's doing? No, I quickly realize, because she's still tied down. So… Did I…?

The ogre looks confused and furious. "How did she…?"

Believe me, ogre, I have the same question as you. I don't have magic. There must be some mistakes! But I'm also pretty thankful, for who knows what they could've done to me?

Kiko, standing on a tree stump, sees what the damage is and looks prideful. He does a funny jig and taunts the ghouls, but doesn't notice one creeping up behind him. Once he does, he turns white (literally. I don't know how he did that. But I also don't know how I just friggin' did magic!) and faints. Luckily, I noticed and attacked the ghoul with my stick, killing it. I was quite proud of myself. I thought I was gonna die, but look at me! I was doing things I thought I could never do before. I wonder if I could do the whole magic thing again…

But my feeling of elation is short-lived, and suddenly, I feel myself roughly grabbed and leaving the ground. I scream. It was the ogre. He had grabbed me without me knowing and now was planning on killing me. Crap.

"You shouldn't have done that," the ogre growls. "Now, you're gonna die!"

I squirm, trying to escape from my grip. Suddenly, I feel a strange, tingling feeling in my body, and before I even know it, a blast of light (magic?) hits the ogre, shooting him all the way into the forest, dropping me in the process. I did it again! How did I do that, though? This is crazy!

"You okay?"

I look up. Standing there is the fairy, her hands on her hips and an impressive look on her face. "I've never seen anything like that before! Kudos to you." She prances over to her scepter as the ogre was limping back. "I got my scepter back. I suggest you run."

The ogre, acknowledging the fact that he has been defeated, does some weird spell by clapping his hands together, creating a wispy-like tornado around him. It's obviously a teleportation spell, because as the ghouls enter, they disappear. They all run towards the spell, but one of them stays behind and tears a piece of my pants before I can kick him away. Great. They can probably track me or something.

After all the ghouls disappear, the ogre finishes his spell and disappears as well. Finally, the battle is over.

"That took a lot out of me, I'm glad that's over," the fairy says, approaching me. She's holding her side. She looks beaten up, with bruises and scratches and blood all over her. "Hey, what's your name?"

"Bloom," I answer, still in shock. "Bloom Peters."

"Cool name. I'm Stella." As she says it, she begins to sway and eventually faint. I notice as she does so, she changes form. Her fairy form disappears, replacing it with a more civilian form.

"Oh, crap," I say. Kiko hops over to me. "She must've gotten more injured than we thought, Kiko." I think for a moment. "The hospital's too far away for us to carry her all the way. We'll go home." We drag her onto the bike (somehow) and begin driving home, me still digesting what has happened.

* * *

My parents didn't take it well that I had allowed an unconscious girl into our home. I tried to explain to them what happened, but they looked at me like I was crazy.

"Alright, Bloom," Dad says. "Tell me again."

"Ugh! Is it that hard to understand?" I groan. "I was in the park and I saw the girl, Stella, fighting off an ogre with magic powers and the ogre seemed to want her crystal or whatever. And then, I come in and I do some weird magic voodoo crap and blast the ogre and his minions away! There! You got it?" I rambled throughout the entire thing. Mostly because I was tired of Dad asking me to tell him the story over and over again.

"Bloom, are you sure you didn't hit your head while you were there?"

"Wha-" I looked at my dad with surprise. He didn't believe me? "Are you saying I'm lying, because I'm not honestly!"

"Well, even if you aren't lying," Dad replies, walking over to the house phone, "we can't just keep her here. We're going to have to call an ambulance."

"No, wait... . Don't do that…"

I turn my head. Stella, lying on our couch, has woken up, and looked panicked. She must not like doctors that much.

"Oh, she's come to," Mom says. "How do you feel, dear?"

"Me? Oh, I'm fine. Just took a quick nap. Using all that energy really takes it out of a gal." She slowly stands up, stretches, then sits back down. I notice she's wearing something different. Her dress is quite long, and it was a loud gold color. The dress went to the ground, and there was an opening for her legs where I saw pretty heels. She looked like royalty.

"What's your name?" Mom asks.

"Stella. Isn't it a pretty one?"

Mom nods. "Should we call your parents, Stella?"

For some reason, Stella laughs at that. "Call my parents? I've checked Earth's connection. If a Zenithian came here, they would die of disappointment. And anyway, it's impossible to call my parents from here. I'm from the Magic Dimension, you know. Solaria's my home planet. I'm the princess there, so I'm kinda a big deal, but you should know that already. I mean, your daughter has magic, so she has to come from the Magic Dimension, but I don't feel any positive or negative energy coming from the two of you. I wonder why…"

Wow. Stella talks a lot. And at least she saw me do magic, so I definitely know I'm not crazy. But why don't my parents have magic if I do? Isn't magic a genetic thing?

Mom seems intrigued by Stella's talking, but Dad just goes over to our house phone saying, "A different dimension? Magic? Fairies? I'm starting to think you hit your head too hard, Stella. I'm calling the hospital. She probably has brain damage."

Stella takes offense to that. She bites her lip, suddenly gets an idea, then points her finger towards the house phone. A strange glow comes from her index finger, and suddenly, the house phone is now a piece of cabbage and carrot which Kiko immediately runs to.

"See? I just did real magic for you. You can't say you don't believe me now." Stella crosses her arms and pouts.

"Yeah, Dad. You're just in denial." I sit down next to Stella on the arm rest on the couch.

Stella turns to me. "You were amazing out there, Bloom! Totally awesome! I've never seen magic like that come from a person like you. I mean, no offense, but I thought all Earthlings were useless when it came to magic. Are you sure you're not from the Magic Dimension?"

I shake my head. "My home has always been here. Believe me; I'm just as confused as you."

"Hm. Well, one thing's for sure. You're most definitely a fairy."

I choke on my own saliva at that. "A fairy? Me? Huh? How do you know I'm a fairy?"

Stella rolls her eyes. "Honestly; Earthlings are so clueless. Listen, Bloom. I'm a fairy myself, so I obviously know a bit about different fairies. And no other species has the kind of magic you have. You look like a fairy - I mean, your skin is practically glowing and your hair is an unnatural color-and you do magic like a fairy… It wouldn't take a genius to figure out that you're a fairy."

I'm surprised. Me? A fairy? This is happening so fast… I don't know how to comprehend this… "But how can I be a fairy? Don't fairies have wings and whatnot?"

"Yeah, they do, but they obviously don't wear them all the time." Stella points to her back. "And besides, fairies aren't born with wings, they earn them. I already gained mine, and I really like them." She sighs. "I wish they were prettier, though."

"I think they're pretty," I say. "I wonder - if I am a fairy - what my fairy form looks like."

"You're fire, so you're probably blue or red, but I think you would look fabulous in blue."

"Uh, girls?"

We turn our heads to my dad, who's still standing there, looking bewildered. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but we still have a problem on our hands. What do we do with Stella?"

"Don't worry. I have no intention of staying long. Tomorrow, I'm supposed to be heading out to Alfea College, and I have my own way of leaving, so no need to try to get me comfy."

Dad rubs his temples. "Just… Bring Stella to your room, Bloom."

I nod, understanding how my dad is feeling and go up the stairs to my bedroom, Stella trailing behind. When we get to my room, I internally cringe. When it's just me, I think my bedroom looks fine, but when I have company over, I see all the flaws I didn't see beforehand. All my stuff is still sprawled across the floor, my TV is on sleep mode, and my bed-sheets are strewn this way and that. I was about to apologize… Until I saw Stella's amazed expression.

"This… is your room?" Stella asked.

"Yeah…?" I don't know why she's so excited; it looks like a tornado's been through here.

"I've never been in an Earthling's room before! It's so cute and homely… Not like my room back home. In my room, it's empty and bright and can fit three hoverbike racing stadiums in there. So… Not much to look at."

I choke on my saliva. "'Not much to look at?' Stella, that sounds like it's bigger than my house!"

"It definitely is." She picks up my book on fairies that was lying on the ground. She flipped through the pages and tsked disapprovingly. "That book is inaccurate. They're getting us fairies mixed up with pixies. Earthlings have no idea what real magic and fairies look like."

"I mean, I'm not surprised," I say. "Magic isn't part of Earth. In fact, we've denounced magic as just things in fairy-tales. Believe me, I'm still processing what happened in the park. Is it all a dream, or is this really reality? I don't know whether to be excited or scared."

"Well…" Stella sits on my bed. "The Magic Dimension can be both exciting and dangerous. I mean, I see the same with Earth. I never could imagine a world without magic.

How would you do anything? But I mean…" She walks over to my window and looks up to the stars above. "In my world, magic is a wonderful thing. Something that everyone inherits, and yeah, it can be both scary and exciting, depending on how you use your powers. But you are going to have to embrace your fairy-hood, since you are now part of it, Bloom."

"Yeah, but I don't feel any different," I explain.

"You don't have to feel different. Magic is just there, with you." Stella goes over to my cup full of pencils, pens, and other writing utensils. "And it's not hard to use. Just think about what you want your magic to do, and if you believe hard enough, it just happens!" As an example, she holds out her hands and raises my coloring stuff. With a wave of magic, all of my utensils blend together, making one large pencil. I stare in awe as I watch Stella perform.

She then turns to me. "Now, you try. Try to change it back to its original form."

I take a deep breath and mimic what she did. It doesn't seem to work, though, and the only thing the pencil does is fall to the ground. I sit back on my bed, disappointed. "It's no use. I can't do it. I think my magic's worn off."

"All you need is practice!" Stella says. "And I know just the place!" She conjures up a small card and throws it onto the ground, and it expands. I look at the card. It's showing a beautiful, pink building with a gate the shape of two wings at the front. It's surrounded by beautiful greenery. "This is Alfea College for Fairies, located in the Magix, capital city of the Magic Dimension. It's the school I'm supposed to be going to tomorrow."

"Wow…" I breathe. "It's so…beautiful."

"I know. It's very bright. You wanna see?"

"Um… Stella, I don't know if you've noticed, but we're in the Milky Way Galaxy. I have no idea how to cross dimensions, and that seems pretty complicated if you ask me."

Stella rolled her eyes. "It's not that hard, silly." She walks onto the card. Suddenly, she begins to sink down into it. "All you have to do is stand on it and bam! you're crossing dimensions!"

Her head begins to disappear under the card and I run over to the card and simply stand on it. At first, I can't tell if I'm leaving, but when I look down, I see I've sunk to the point where the card is at my chest. When I finally finish sinking, I see a beautiful sight.

Alfea College is even prettier in person. We're close by a forest and the sun is slowly rising in the distance. The school is close by and it seems unreal. Beautiful turrets and windows and a gorgeous gate which glows since the sun is shining on it. Around us, small butterflies and other supernatural creatures fly by, and I begin to think I'm dreaming.

"Uh, Bloom? You're drooling."

"Oh. Oops." I wipe the slobber off my lower lip. "This is the school you're going to?"

"Uh, yeah. I said that like five minutes ago." Stella ran a finger through her hair. "This school is well known for being the best school for fairies in the entire Magic Dimension. The headmistress, Lady Faragonda, has been alive for more than two hundred years, and she taught famous fairies like Magria the Great, Millo Morta… She's the best." She suddenly gets an idea. "You should go with me! There, you can learn magic, and, even better, you'll have me so you won't have to worry about making friends! How does that sound?"

I frown. I really really want to go to Alfea, but I have a real school that I go to. I don't think my parents would allow it. And, even if they did let me go, what would I tell everyone at school? Am I willing to give up my life on Earth for a new world that I've never lived in?

"I don't know, Stella…" I say. "As much as I want to learn magic, I still have a life here. On Earth."

Stella looks disappointed. "Come on, Bloom, please? What's the point of having magic if you're not gonna use it?"

I sigh. "Alright. I'll sleep on it. Now, how do we get back?"

"Easy. You just jump!" And with that, she jumped up and went straight through the card. I did the exact same thing and found myself back in my bedroom.

Stella and I talked for a couple more minutes. I got to hear about her life in Solaria, her home realm. Her parents are the king and queen, Radius and Luna. She has no siblings and has the power of the sun and the moon. I usually zone out when people talk about themselves, but Stella has a very interesting life. I mean, of course she would. She's a fairy, for God's sake!

Right when she was telling me a funny story about the boy she has a crush on, the entire house begins shaking, and I hear the screams of my mother (and Kiko) from downstairs. From Stella's expression, I can tell that some unwanted visitors have arrived.

We run down the stairs and see Knut, the ghouls, and an ugly, blue ogre standing there. It smells absolutely; if we survive this battle, I'm gonna spray this entire house with Febreeze.

"Where is the princess?" Knut asks menacingly. My parents huddle in the corner.

"Right here, ugly!"

Knut turns his head. Stella, next to me, is looking smug, her hands on her hips, as if she was expecting this. Which she probably was (she's mentioned she's been attacked by that ogre seven times already).

"Sun power!" Stella cries. She takes off her ring, raises it to the sky, and, in a blinding light, transforms into her fairy form. She lifts off the ground using her wings, slowly approaches Knut, then whack! kicks him the face. He stumbles backwards, holding his nose. "Ghouls, troll! GET HER!"

"Bloom," Stella whispers, "we're outnumbered. What should we do?"

Luckily, I'm good at quick thinking. "You take out Knut and the troll. I'll take on his ghouls."

"Smart," Stella replies.

"Follow me, ghouls!" I yell to the ugly, red creatures. Fortunately, their attention switches from Stella to me. They begin following me outside and I stop at the sidewalk. They're staring at me menacingly, and I struggle to figure out what to do.

Wait. Aren't I a fairy?

I hold out my hands, trying to conjure up some magic, but to no avail. But suddenly, a pot turned on its face begins sliding towards us, moving in slow zig-zags. Huh? If that's my magic, that's not really what I was hoping for. I pick up the pot and look underneath it, looking for Kiko, and he was underneath, holding on to the sides for dear life. I drop the pot and turn back to the ghouls who were looking confused and after my booty.

Suddenly, a loud blast of magic snaps my attention, and Knut comes shooting out of the window (breaking it), landing on the ghouls and smushing them. Well, at least that means I don't have to do anything.

Stella comes shooting out of the other window, shards of glass sticking to her exposed skin (ouch), and landing roughly on the ground a couple feet away from me. I ran over to her. "Stella, are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she says, brushing the shards off her lap and sitting up. "I've called for backup."

"Backup?"

"The Specialists, duh," she answers. I raise my eyebrow in confusion, but before I can ask, the troll comes sluggishly out of the house, looking menacing and hellbent on killing me and Stella.

"Uh oh," says Stella next to me. "If the boys don't get here soon, we're good as fairy dust."

We both look nervous as the troll inches closer and closer to us. Neither of us had too much strength left to fight, so we were about to get pummeled. Just as he was about to murder us, a long, violet, whip-like chain wraps around the troll's blue, choking it. Stella and I turn our heads. Four boys are standing to our left, decked out in blue and tan outfits, long, blue capes and navy boots as accessories. They sure looked important.

The first one on the far end had flat, ginger hair that stuck up in the back. He wore square-shaped, red glasses pushed up against his nose, pale, bony complexion, and a strangely-shaped gun in his right hand.

Next to the ginger was the one that caught my eye. He was of average height, bright blue eyes, and parted light blond hair that flew backwards in the wind. He held on tightly to a curved, thin, blue sword. Hubbah hubbah.

The next one was the tallest of the bunch, dark violet hair sticking up like a plant (odd), and he had a deep scowl on his face. He was the one with the purple whip wrapped around the troll, making sure it couldn't move.

And the last one was a guy with brown hair swept over his face, looking bored as he leaned on his own sword which was drilled into the ground.

Huh. I didn't expect the Specialists to look like that, but I'm kinda not complaining.

"Sorry we're late," the blond one says. "We had some difficulty with the trip."

"Yeah," the violet-haired one agrees. "F*cking Timmy couldn't get the portal up, the dumb*ss."

"Excuse me," the one called Timmy hisses. "It wasn't entirely my fault. Sky wanted to have a sandwich break before we left!"

"I'm a prince," the brown-haired one says. "Princes cannot go hungry, and you still wouldn't let me eat! Don't expect me to do too much."

"Ah, don't need y'all anyway." The violet one pulls harder on his weapon. "I can deal with him on my own."

"Good luck, Riven." Right at that moment, the troll pulls him forward, causing him to fall onto his back with a painful thud. The blond one laughed. "You're gonna need it."

Riven began fighting off the troll, slashing it with his whip, scars littering the troll's torso. With every hit, the troll began to grow angrier, and he brought a large, blue fist raining down upon Riven, hitting him square in the face, throwing him all the way and Stella and I's feet. A nasty scar appears on his face, blood dripping from his lips. Stella groans and prepares to help fight as well, but Riven stops her before she does. "Don't even think about it, little fairy. Leave it to us Specialists."

The troll is now surrounded by the Specialists, and they inch closer to it. The troll notices it's in danger, and it steps back slowly. Timmy sees this as an opportunity and shoots the ground with his gun, causing a long split in the ground (I wonder how we're going to cover that up). Sky threatens it with his sword. Stella motions for me to put my hands together and thrust outwards, and I do, and suddenly, a bright red, burst of magic shoots out of my hand and hits the troll, making it fall into the split. We win.

It tries to climb back up, but the blond one takes a circular ring thing out and forces it around the troll's neck. Electric sparks form the minute it wraps around its neck, probably to shock it if it tries to attack again. The guys relax, and they pull the troll out. They flank it, making sure it doesn't try anything. Knut behind us notices he's defeated. He grumbles, claps his hands together, and disappears in a cloud of smoke.

"That wasn't too hard," says the blond one. "You sure you're alright, girls?"

"I sure am now," Stella says confidently. "Thanks, boys. You really saved our *sses."

"That's pretty much what we do, princess," Sky replies. "Who's your friend?"

"Oh!" Stella gestures to me. "Boys, this is Bloom. My new fairy friend!"

"Nice to meet you, Bloom." The blond bows. Hubbah hubbah. "I'm Brandon, Prince Sky's squire." He points to the brown-haired one.

"I'm Timmy!" the ginger cries. "The technician for this team! I kinda am pretty important around here." He walks right into a pole, and I stifle my laughter.

Riven rolls his eyes. "And I'm Riven. That's all you need to know."

"He's the team grump," Brandon whispers, but Riven hears him. "Shut up, Brandon," he hisses. "At least I'm not the servant for a prince."

"He does a damn good job, though." Sky thumps Brandon's back. "Don't listen to anything Riven says. We've only known him for a month, and we already he's trouble."

"I can believe it," I say.

A portal appears behind them. Holding tightly to the troll's arms, they begin to walk through. First Timmy, then Riven, until Sky and Brandon were left.

"Bye bye, ladies!" they say in unison. I wave slowly, in awe of what has happened (and also in awe because hot damn!). They disappear into the portal as well.

"Bloom, you're drooling."

* * *

Dad cleans the broken glass on the floor, groaning as he looks at the damages. "This'll probably be around five thousand dollars! This is not going to go well... Insurance would be great right now."

"You know, I could help!" Stella cries, holding her hand in the air. "Magic solves everything you know."

Dad holds onto the broom tighter. "Yeah, no thanks. Magic caused this; I don't need for it to ruin anything else."

Stella shrugs. "Okay."

I look down at my pastel red suitcase, heart pounding. I had made my decision. I'm going to go to Alfea to learn about my powers. If I didn't go, it would be stupid. I need to learn how my powers work and why I have them. And Stella would be there to help. There's so much I wanna know and joining the Magic Dimension might be just what I need.

"You sure you wanna do this, Bloom?" Mom asks, laying a hand on my shoulder. "You can always back out."

"I know, but I really wanna do this," I explain. "Wouldn't you?"

She nods, but she looks slightly sad. I would be leaving them to go off to an unknown world. If it were my child, I would be sad, too.

"Well, Stella, how are we supposed to get this Alfalfa place or something?" Dad asks.

Stella rolls her eyes. "Alfea, and I can teleport you guys via my scepter." She takes off her ring, and it transforms into her scepter. "I'm not actually supposed to do this, but hey! what the Magical Regulation Team doesn't know can't hurt them." She swipes the scepter, blasting a wave of magic, and suddenly, we're all flying through bright colors, the world disappearing behind us. It's a magical experience, even better than the card teleportation. Kiko holds onto my back, trying not to fly off somewhere, but this is so much fun!

We land on grassy ground. Stella stands in front of us, looking satisfied. She turns her scepter back into a ring and looks at the lot of us. "Well, we made it!" She gestures outwards. "Welcome, Peters, to the Magic Dimension!"


	2. Varanda of Callisto

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alfea College for Fairies might be the most beautiful place Bloom was ever seen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chaptersode. see. i merged episode and chapter, so now it's a chaptersode. whooooo.

**I** know Stella had shown me it before, but Alfea College never seemed to fail to amaze me. It's just so beautiful and bright and energy radiates off of it. Stella next to me seems unfazed, but Mom and Dad on the ground are just as amazed as me. Of course they would be; this would be the first time they witnessed _true magic_.

"I-it's real?" Dad asks, trembling a bit.

"You _still_ didn't believe her?" I asked, my hands on my hips.

"I'm still in shock; cut me some slack." Dad stands up and helps Mom to her feet. Stella pulls a leaf out of her hair and turns back to us. "Welcome to Alfea College, the most famous and prestigious school for fairies. AKA, Bloom's new school."

Kiko jumps onto my shoulder and joins us all staring. We're standing on a steep hill overlooking the school (the same place we were when Stella first brought me here), but this time, we could see people carrying their bags and whatnot walking through the wing-shaped gate into the school. Just seeing them made me feel out-of-place; I'm the only Earthling!)

"We should go ahead and go in," Stella said. "As much as I _love_ being fashionably late, we should probably _not_ be late. If we spend more time out here, we'll be stuck behind the gate, freezing and possibly naked."

Mom and Dad looked flabbergasted at that response, but I flat out snorted. ...but then I saw Stella's expression and I don't think she was trying to be funny. I awkwardly cleared my throat and began walking forward with her.

As we're walking, I hear a grunt behind me. Mom and Dad are a couple feet away from us, and it seemed like they were stuck behind something...?

"Huh? What's happening? What is this?" asks Dad, trying to push forward, but failing. Mom's trying to as well, but she can't seem to get past. "It's like a magical wall," she says, pressing her hands against...the...air...?

"What is it?" I asked, and I went over to them. I felt around the air, trying to see if I could find the source of the problem, but I can't feel anything. I frown. "There's nothing here..." I place my hands on my hips. "Ah, lemme guess. This is your famous 'final prank before I'm away from school' thing, right?"

"No, Bloom, we're serious," Mom says genuinely. Yeah, they're probably telling the truth. "We really can't get through!"

"Stella?" I turn to my new friend who's fixing her pink nails. "Is this a glitch in the system?" Stella had mentioned that she wasn't very good at teleportation via scepter, so I wouldn't be surprised if something had gone wrong.

"Nah." She snapped her fingers, and with a flash of magic, a bright red barrier showed itself to us. Stella and I were on the other side, but Mom and Dad were stuck on the side opposite us. "This is a magic barrier. It only allows people with magical ability to enter. Since your parents are regular Earthlings, they can't cross. Headmistress Faragonda had put it up ever since a certain... _incident_ about a century ago when a fairy had brought her Earthling friend into the school. The Magic Dimension doesn't approve of Earthlings much, and it resulted in a _lot_ of paperwork and mind erasing. I'm pretty sure the staff _never_ wants to go through _that_ again."

"Oh." I look back up at Mom and Dad. Our goodbyes were coming early, I guess. I felt sadness rise up in my body. This would be the first time I would truly be away from them. I mean, yes, I've been away from them before, but this would be the first time I would be gone for more than a week. _Come on, Bloom, keep it together. Don't start crying. I swear to God, if you start crying_... "I guess this is goodbye," I choke out. I cross the barrier and go to them.

"Oh, Bloom..." Mom wraps me in a tight hug which Dad joins. We stay like that for a while until Dad lets go first. "Promise me," he says. "Promise me you'll do good at school. Get straight As-Is the grading system the same here?" he quickly asks Stella.

"We use more percentages than letters, but yeah. Sorta."

"Get good... _percentages_ ," Dad continues. "But, above all, _enjoy it_. It's not everyday you learn that you have powers and get to attend a magic school." He rubs the back of his neck. "It kinda seems surreal."

"It's real, alright," I said. "I'll miss you guys."

"We'll miss you, too, Bloom," Mom says.

"Oh! And also, stay away from boys! Boys are the enemy, Bloom!" Dad quickly adds.

I giggle. "I get it. _No boys_."

Dad nods. "Goodbye, honey."

"Bye."

We all stand there for a moment. I turn my head sheepishly to Stella. "Uh, Stel? How are they supposed to get home?"

"Oh! oops. Sorry about that, Mr. and Mrs. Bloom's parents." She held her scepter tightly and whispered, " _Returnus backhomus_!"

Mom and Dad seemed to disintegrate. They slowly disappear in different black particles. It's kinda creepy, but it didn't seem to be harmful to them. "They're home safely, right?" I ask for clarification.

"Yep. It's supposed to do that." Stella could tell I was a bit concerned about the way they went home. "Alrighty then. No more time to waste! Let us go!" And she skips ahead of me, but she trips as she's climbing down the hill. I burst out laughing.

" _Stop laughing at my pain_!"

The walk is long, but worth it. My heart is pounding the entire time we're venturing there. I just couldn't believe it. This was real life. I had already pinched myself beforehand, trying to make sure I wasn't dreaming, and sure enough, it's real. We pass a lot of other girls around here, talking to each other and whatnot. Some are more nervous than others, which gives me the impression that they're first years.

There's a long line of girls standing for something or other. Stella and I join the line, and the girls move pretty swiftly, and now I can see what we're waiting for. In a couple lines in front of us, a girl is talking to an older woman holding a clipboard and a floating pen which hovers near her head.

"What's your name, dear?" the woman asks.

"Eleanor," the student stammers. "E-Eleanor of Delonah. I-I sent in a letter telling the school that I had received the letter telling me that I had been accepted, but I kinda sent it in late. I-I was hoping that y-you still got it..."

"Are you nervous, my dear?" the woman asks, not looking at the girl as she skimmed the clipboard for her name.

"A-a-a little."

"Eleanor... Eleanor... Eleanor... Ah! here it is. Eleanor of Delonah. You may go in."

The student looks absolutely relieved, and she inches away from the woman. I suddenly get hit with a wave of realization.

"Uh, Stella?" I ask. "You didn't tell me that we need to be approved by the staff first! We can't just walk in?"

Stella blinks a couple times. "Oops. Didn't think about that. Oh, well. I have it all under control." She flicks her wrist and suddenly, an envelope is in her right hand, and pressed in the middle of it is a strange crest in red ink. It looked official.

"What's that?" I ask.

"This," Stella explains, holding the envelope with both hands, "is a letter from my frenemy, Princess Varanda of Callisto. She and I go _way_ back. We're not friends anymore for our personal reasons, but she was going to attend Alfea this year, but she got another opportunity to attend a fairy college in another realm, so she asked me to send this letter to the headmistress explaining why she's not here." She then began ripping the letter into many pieces which floated onto the ground below. "But... Nobody has to know that she isn't actually here. Nobody knows Varanda; Callisto's one of those realms that prefer to be isolated, so no one will know that you're actually Bloom of Earth. Sounds good?"

I raise my eyebrows. "Not at all. Stella, I can't just _pretend_ to be someone I'm not. Where I come from, that's considered identity theft, and that's a pretty big crime."

"I know the concept of crime. But they're not gonna let you in if you tell them your real name, so the only thing you _can_ do is lie! and I'm a pretty good liar myself, so I could talk for you. If anyone asks anything specifically personal about Callisto, I'll explain. It won't be that bad. You're pretty much stuck with me for a while, and one thing you should know is that I don't take _no_ for an answer."

I sigh. I look quite nervous about this. If we get caught, who _knows_ what'll happen? I wonder what jails look like in the Magic Dimension. I sigh. But... I want to go to Alfea. I want to learn about myself and my powers.

If the only way to get answers is to lie... So be it.

"Fine. But we have to be _extra_ careful." Stella claps her hands in victory. "Alrighty then! Let us go!"

Conveniently, just as she says that, we're now at the front of the line. I now have a good view of the woman there. She's quite tall, and she's wearing a long, lime, robe-like dress with an open front. Horn-rimmed glasses rest on her long nose, and she has brown hair with faint gray streaks tied up in a bun on top of her head. On one side of her outfit, she has a golden label reading _Griselda Hifflehorn, Vice Headmistress_. She looks up as us and a smirk appears on her wrinkled face. "Ah, Princess Stella. Isn't this a pleasant surprise?"

"Good morning, Griselda," Stella greets, a smirk appearing on her own face. "How was your summer? Did you eat any children?"

"My summer's not as eventful as you would think." It became apparent to me that the two hated each other. "How was yours? Lemme guess! you blew up your entire palace and now you're homeless?"

They both just stared at each other for a while until Griselda's eyes landed on me. "And who are you? Stella's new partner in crime?"

"This is Varanda of Callisto, and yes. She _is_ my new partner, so prepare for trouble and make it double."

Griselda peers at me up and down. She looks back down at her clipboard. "Varanda of Callisto, you say?"

"Y-yeah, that's me," I stammer. This is kinda nerve-wracking. Griselda looks like the type of person who can catch a lie in a moment. _Please don't notice,_ _ **please**_ _don't notice_...!

"Varanda of Callisto and Stella of Solaria. You may go in. Oh, and," Griselda adds. "Try not to ruin anything else, or else we might have to _Stella-proof_ the place."

Stella sticks her tongue out at the teacher, and we walk into the large courtyard. There are benches in different areas with hedges and bushes housing flowers I've _never_ seen before. Even nature's different in the Magic Dimension. What's next, floating toilets?

"I can't believe you would talk to a teacher like that," I tell Stella. "Are conduct rules different here, too?"

"No," Stella explains. "Griselda and I hate each other mutually. It's no harm done. I just get pure joy out of aggravating her. She needs a bit of _Stella_ in her life!" My blonde friend demonstrated jazz hands, and I can't help but giggle. I guess you _do_ need a bit of Stella in your life.

The line gradually became shorter and shorter until soon, all the girls were standing or sitting around the courtyard. Some of the other students, however, went ahead and entered the school. Probably upperclassmen.

Griselda looks at the clock on the front building, glances around her, and then steps forward towards. The other girls around us weren't paying much attention, and it looked like Griselda wasn't going to have any of it. She magicked up a bell, and she rings it, but it's louder than any of us anticipated, and I have to hold my ears. _How can just a tiny bell be so loud_? The perks of magic, I guess.

"Ah, it wouldn't be Griselda without her signature Bell of Torture," Stella whispers.

"Now that I have all of your attention," she begins, "we can discuss some major things before you truly begin your first years as Alfea fairies." She clears her throat.

"This is the most famous fairy school in the entirety of the Magic Dimension. This school has taught some of the greatest Guardian Fairies and monarchs since the beginning of the end of the Phoenix and Dragon Wars."

 _Phoenix and Dragon Wars?_ I wonder what that was.

"We're not like your local fairy academy. Here in Alfea, we aren't afraid to enforce rules and expel students left and right. You're growing into strong Fairies, and being Guardian fairies means having discipline. We're not a witch school, so you'll be hearing none of that 'hocus pocus' or 'bubble bubble, toil and trouble' nonsense. Magic is dignified and unique, and it should be viewed as such. The rules are the most important of school life. This school will be your home for the next-counting this year-three years, and the building should be treated as such. Cleanliness, respect between peers, and prohibition of magic outside of classrooms are examples of some of these rules. The entire list is found in your handbook, and I suggest you read it. Failure to comply with any of these rules will result in suspension or expulsion. An example of the results of disobeying rules is a living person." Griselda points a bony finger towards Stella. "Because of Princess Stella here, Potionology is temporarily closed. Last year, she caused a terrible accident when she failed to listen to the number one rule of the potions lab: _never_ place unknown items inside beakers and other cups."

Chatter formed between all the students, some pointing at Stella, and others cursing her name. Stella, though, was unfazed and looked...proud?

"What did you do?" I ask her.

"The potion just looked so bland and ugly, so I thought if I added beetroot, it would turn a pretty magenta. Instead it caused hospitalizations and a lot of paperwork. But hey," she adds, "at least I'm famous now."

"More like _infamous_ ," I reply.

"Settle down, students!" Griselda snaps harshly. "This is what I mean by discipline. You should know when and where to speak and when and where to be silent. _This_ is one of those silent times. This should have been taught to you when you were little Fairies, but I guess I'm going to have to review it. _Don't speak when the professor is speaking_. If you fail to comply with that simple rule, I will be most happy to give you detention for a few days so you can sort yourself out. And another thing-

"Griselda?"

Said teacher stops and turns around to see an old woman, petite and elegant, walking towards her. She wore a dark purple blazer, with a mermaid-like, pastel purple skirt which reached a bit past her knees. Her hands were covered in dark purple gloves and on her nose lie oval-shaped glasses. Like Griselda, she wore a gold sign on one side of her outfit that read: _Minerva Faragonda_ _, Headmistress_.

"Oh, Griselda..." the headmistress shakes her head in humorous disappointment. "I hope you're not scaring the students again. "I hope you're not scaring the students again. We want them to _come_ to the school, not run far, far away from it."

"Faragonda! I-uh..." She bows. "My apologies, headmistress."

Faragonda smiles warmly. I can tell I'm already gonna like her. "My dear Griselda's not all bad once you get to know her. But fortunately, she's given you a good explanation about how things are gonna go, no matter how harsh it was explained. Come. Follow me. It's getting a bit chilly out here."

Not really. But I _did_ grow up in a mostly cold area, so I can't really say anything. (Though, honestly, it's kinda warm.)

Stella and I, along with the rest of the first-years, head into the building, and I can't help but suppress a gasp once I see the inside.

The floor was a shiny, light green color, looking like it had just been polished. In front of us was a _huge_ , wide staircase leading up to an area above where different doors and people were located. Golden railings were placed up there as well (and they looked real, too!) Above, a chandelier hung, and tiny jewels glittered on top in replacement of fire. This looked like a palace I would dream of, except _better_.

"Ain't it nice?" Stella whispers.

"It's better than _nice_ ," I whisper back.

"Welcome to Alfea College for Fairies, ladies," Faragonda says. "Enjoy the sight; you'll be seeing it for the remainder of your years here. I'm always excited to greet the new first-years; you're all very interesting. Most-if not all of you-have your beginning fairy forms, but you will not stay that way. At the end of your studies here, you'll have grown to be great and powerful fairies with the power of Enchantix. You all were accepted here not because of your royal statuses, but because the staff thought you would be a good fit to attend here, and we would not like to be told otherwise. I believe that all of you will grow to be powerful monarchs for your kingdoms, realms, and empires. Alfea is not about studying and trying to simply pass. You'll graduate when you _grow_. Growth is the most important thing. Not just grades. You may have below average grades, but if you've shown that you've become a powerful, strong, and glorious fairy, you'll truly achieve something." She looks at her wrist-watch on her right arm. "Oh, look at the time! I believe it is time for us to wrap this up. Have a great year, students. You're now allowed to explore the school and get used to your surroundings, but I suggest you head to your dormitories first, _then_ explore. Your school schedules will be sent to you in the morning, so don't worry. If you're ever lost, if you press your hand against a wall and think about where you want to go, your magic will guide you there, so there's no way you're excuse for being late to class is, 'I got lost'. Dinnertime is at seventeen hundred hours, so please be down there at that time. Feel free to ask any of the professors if you have any questions. You're allowed to go down to Magix, but be back before twenty-one hundred hours; that's your curfew. You may converse with the Red Fountain boys, but stay away from the witches of Cloud Tower. That is _very_ important." And she snapped her fingers, and the headmistress was gone.

"She seems nice," I say.

"Headmistress Faragonda's _always_ nice. She's kind, but strict. It's _Griselda_ you have to look out for," Stella explains. "Now, come on! I'm tired of standing here like a sleeping horse. Let's go to the dorms!" She takes my hand, and we head up the staircase, take a right, and begin walking through the _huge_ school. There were _more_ staircases and twists and turns, but Stella seemed to know her way around the school like the back of her hand. I guess it's because she's attended school twice now.

"Uh, Stella?" I wonder. "What's Cloud Tower?"

Stella's eyes widen and she runs her free hand through her hair. "Oh, my God, I had forgotten you _still_ were a newbie in the Magic Dimension. Well, you see, after the Dragon and Phoenix Wars, three schools emerged for fairies, Specialists, and witches. Alfea's the fairy school-currently where we are. Uber famous, blah blah blah. Red Fountain's next. Famous school for knights, squires, and-of course, Specialists. They train and fight to learn how to protect their kingdoms, countries, et cetera It's run by Headmaster Saladin, a really short guy, but knows how to pack a punch."

"So basically like a military school?" I ask. Stella just stares at me in confusion. Guess they don't have boot camps and whatnot here. "Nevermind."

Stella continues. "And then we have Cloud Tower, school for witches. Pretty creepy. It has an infamous reputation for producing evil witches and sorcerers alike. And they hate us fairies, so that's why Faragonda tells us to stay away. I wouldn't want to hang out with witches anyway; they probably all smell like burning hair."

I giggle. I know what burning hair smells like, and it's the most pleasant thing. "And one last question... What's the Phoenix and Dragon Wars?"

Stella groans. "It's _way_ too long and detailed and you'll probably get better information in Enchanted History, but here's the gist of it: it wasn't _actually_ with phoenixes and dragons, but it kinda was. When magic was being formed, the first four elements—fire, water, earth, and air—were the only magic elements. Later on, it would be greatly expanded, but fire was arguably the most powerful out of the four. When it was being created, it was formed into two types of fires: the Dragon Fire and the Phoenix Fire. The two clashed and it caused the bloodiest war the Magic Dimension had ever seen. We still have the fire element, but we don't know what happened to the Dragon Fire and the Phoenix Fire. Probably extinct elements."

"That sounds cool. Magic wars seem _so_ much more interesting than regular Earthling wars," I say.

"Our wars aren't that different." Stella shrugs. "It still involves people getting angry with someone else, death, raiding, blah blah blah. What's the point in learning about wars when it's just the same thing over and over again?"

I look away for a moment. I'll probably go to the library and learn things about it... If I can _find_ the library. I'm still new here.

Just as we finished up our conversation, we arrived at the dorm hall. We passed multiple doors, checking the names beside them, trying to see if one of our names was located on it. It took us a bit before we found our room, and when we did, I was pleased to see that we were sharing a room.

"Oh, cool," Stella says, reading the names on the list. _Varanda of Callisto, Stella of Solaria, Flora of Linphea, Musa of Harmonica, Techna of Zenith_. "I have the same room like I did last year. I hope our roommates are _actually_ interesting. The only thing my roommates did was clean and talk about the weather and _study_. If I didn't know any better, I would've thought they were robots."

"At least we're together." I never liked going anywhere with people I didn't know. Since Stella was there with me, I wouldn't be so alone. I'm a social person, but I get nervous easily around new people. I mean, who wouldn't?

Stella steps in front of me and opens the door. My jaw drops when I see the room.

It's not a _dormitory_ ; it's a full-on apartment! There's a clean, green rug lying on the ground in front of the door. On my right is a small, silver desk with file cabinets on the side. A magenta-colored lamp was unlit high up on the wall, and in front of us were four doors with another sign telling us who our personal roommate was. There's another area in the room where a fluffy, pink couch sits surrounded by identical pink couch chairs. A narrow, oval-shaped table sits in the midst of it. There was also a large, empty bookcase close by. Random, strange looking plants were in different corners, and they looked quite fresh.

"Bloom, you're drooling again," Stella says.

I wipe the saliva off my lower lip but don't take my eyes off the area. "This...is the dorm of my dreams..."

"Alfea's known for going all out for living expenses. Everyone here is related to royalty in some way, so the staff were probably making the dorms look like actual _palace_ bedrooms." Stella squeals when she sees her name on one of the signs. Her room's in the far side of the apartment. "Yes! I get my own room again!" She opens her door, and I can tell what she means by _royalty_.

On the floor's a rose-gold rug, the same color as the entire bedroom. Her bed's a circular canopy with silky, light blue curtains flowing down on the blankets. The headboard circles around the entire bed with an assortment of candles placed. Two purple, fluffed pillows are placed neatly on one side of the bed. Floating, stair-like platforms are placed on the left. Stella's suitcase lies on the ground underneath them, and behind the (stairs?), a vanity sits with a large mirror attached to it. A potted plant rests on our right, and a split window sits on the wall. This room seemed very Stella-like.

"Did you design this or did the designers take a lucky guess at what you wanted?" I ask.

"I asked for this design. It's almost the exact copy of my room back home," Stella explains. "Except smaller." She sighs. "Not everyone's blessed with room spacey-ness."

"I wonder what mine looks like." I step out of her room and head to the sign that says, _Flora of Linphea and Varanda of Callisto_. I wonder who Flora of Linphea is.

"It's probably the default look since Varanda never submitted her design," Stella's voice explains from her room.

When I enter my room, the first thing I notice is the colors. They're very light peaches and strawberry yogurt (is that a good example?) colors. There's a magenta colored rug on one side and a narrow shaped bed against the wall, bare sheets and all (I have my own bedsheets and whatnot in my suitcase, so I don't have to worry. I packed good). Two vertical shelves hang on the wall above my bed (where a small, potted plant is) and above a wide, slanted desk with a wheeled chair. A nightstand with a rose-colored lamp is on the right side, and a desk with filing cabinets and a window next to it completes the look. I love decorating stuff, so this should be fun! I already see some books I'm gonna place, some portraits...

I hear rustling happening from the other side of my room and I assume it's my roommate. The girl's placing things in her closet, making sure they're nice and organized. She has long, flowing, brown hair, caramel colored skin, and had jangling, bronze bracelets on her wrists. She wore a pastel green crop-top with ruffled, short sleeves, a shiny, silky, pink skirt pulled up to a bit past her navel, and pink strappy heels with a flower by the ankle. A thin, green belt ran across the skirt, and a flower was placed neatly in her hair.

I walk forward towards her. "Hey, are you Flora, by any chance? I'm your roomma-" But before I could finish my sentence, I heard a long _yowl_ come from underneath my feet. I look down. I had accidentally stepped on some vines which were connected to... _a talking plant_? I jump backwards. "Oh God. Sorry, talking plant thing!"

The plant brings its vine its mouth, sucking on it, trying to soothe the pain.

"Don't apologize. I told Fiora to keep her vines off the ground, but she just refused to listen to me." Flora kneels down next to the plant. "Bad plant. Bad."

Fiora just grumbled.

Flora straightens herself up and looks around her side of the room. She has a lot of plant themed items, like her bed, her closet, things in the back. Just a wild guess, but I think she likes nature. "I'm sorry about the plants everywhere. I'm still trying to unpack and the little darlings are still getting used to their new surroundings." Her voice is soft and sweet, and it kinda puts me at ease.

"No, no, it's fine. I like plants. I find them very interesting," I say sheepishly.

"You do?" Flora's green eyes light up in joy. "What's your favorite flower? Mine's the _Rosea Flos_ because it's just so beautiful and has a strong resistance."

"I like...um..." I didn't know what a rosea flos was. "R-roses... They're pretty."

"I like roses as well." Flora smiles warmly. "Though, I wish people didn't immediately hate on them because of their thorns. The poor darlings don't deserve it." Her face changes to one of realization. "Oh, dear. I haven't even introduced myself." She held out her hand for me to shake. "I'm Princess Flora of Linphea. Pleased to meet you."  
  


I take her hand and shake it. "I'm Bl-" I stop before I say the _wrong_ thing. I'm not Bloom of Earth anymore. I'm some chick named Varanda of Callisto. "Varanda. I'm Varanda of Callisto. Nice to meet you, Flora." I walk away from her and place my luggage down. "Is anyone else here yet?"

"Not that I know-" She stops when we both hear a door open. "That might be somebody. I'm kinda nervous to meet anyone else. I ran into somebody and they swore at my plants! Some fairies can be so rude!" Her face changes into an adorable indignant expression and I giggle. I like Flora already.

I walk out of the room to see if anyone was there. I didn't see anybody by the door or exploring the rooms, so I decide to turn back and talk to Flora and see if Stella was there as well. I turn around to go back inside, but-

"Greetings."

I almost have a heart attack. Standing behind me is a new girl, pale as I don't know what and short, magenta hair swept to one side. Her left eye was a pretty teal, but her other eye was a striking purple. Very odd. She was wearing a dark purple, vest-like crop top, whitish-purple skinny jeans, pointed heels colored with different shades of purple and blue, with a multi-colored scarf wrapped around her neck. Finally, a pastel purple wrist-watch rested on her left arm.

"Oh, Jesus. How long were you standing there?" I ask, placing a hand over my heart, trying to calm it down.

"For approximately seventeen-point-three-four seconds," the girl answers honestly, seeing unfazed by the fact that she almost f*cking killed me. "I assume you are my roommate." She places her hand out. "I'm Techna, princess of the Zenithian Capital of the Third Binarian Galaxy." She notices that I look like I've just seen a ghost. "Did I happen to scare you?"

"Y-yes," I gasp.

"I have the tendency of doing so," Techna explains. "It was unintentional."

Damn. I feel stupid in front of her. "No, no, it's fine. No hard feelings. I'm Varanda."

Stella and Flora come out right at that moment. "I'm Flora," said girl introduces herself, shaking Techna's hand. "Nice to meet you."  
  


"And I'm Stella, but everyone knows _that_." Stella shrugs.

"Yes. Yes, we do," Techna replies in a matter-of-fact tone, staring blankly at Stella.

"Oh, sh*t, am I late?"

We all turn. Standing at the doorway is a new girl, and I'm assuming it's Musa of Harmonica. She's shorter than I am, wearing a red, polyester, cut shirt, jean shorts, and red and blue, tied heels. Her hair is a navy color, tied into two fluffy pigtails on both sides of her head. Purple headphones rest on her neck, and she had violet eyes that stared at us from the front of the room. "You're all huddled up like you're having a private convo., so I assume I might be slightly late. Well, never fear!" She points finger-guns towards us. "Musa has arrived. Alright, alright. Lemme see if I can guess your names." She points at me first. "You're... Flora..." Points at _actual_ Flora. "You're Techna." Points at _actual_ Techna. "You're Varanda." And she finally lands on Stella. "And you're Stella."

"I was the only one you got right." Stella snorts. "How did you figure it out?"

Musa shrugs. "You look like a Stella."

Stella beams and runs her fingers through her golden hair. "I do, don't I? I have the elegance of the moon, but the brightness of the sun!"

"Just like the explosion in the potions lab," Techna's monotone voice chimes in.

Stella sticks her tongue out. "It was _one_ time!"

"It should've been _zero_ times," Flora says.

"But if you _do_ plan on causing more explosions, let us know." Musa removes the headphones from around her neck. "I have valuable stuff, and I don't feel like having to go back and buy them all _again_." She clears her throat. "But-uh, I would like it a lot if you told me your _actual_ names."

We all introduce ourselves, and Musa nods in understanding. "Can't blame a girl for trying, huh?"

"Hey!" Flora chimes in, her face lit up with a good idea. "How about we get to know each other."

"Yeah! We'll be stuck with each other for two more years, so what's the point in staying in the dark," I suggest. "We should go out to eat!"

"Yeah. Magix sounds good," Stella replies.

"Hold on, what's Magix again?" I ask, scratching my neck nervously.

"Magix, the oldest and most famous magic city in the entire Magic Dimension." Techna raises a suspicious eyebrow at me. "I am very surprised you were ignorant of its existence, Varanda."

"Hehe..." _Don't seem suspicious, don't seem suspicious_. "Yeah. I live under a rock."

Techna seems confused by this. "How does one live under a rock...?"

"Let's just go to Magix!" Musa cuts in, placing her headphones over her ears and prancing out of the apartment.

This is awkward.

* * *

Magix was nothing how I imagined it. It reminded me if New York City and Las Vegas had a baby. It was so bright and bustling and full of people. If I didn't know any better, I would think I actually _was_ in New York City or Las Vegas. But then I would think I wasn't, because of the magic that surrounded me. Buses and cars drove down the streets, but there were no wheels. Instead, they hovered over the ground, and the drivers didn't have a steering wheel. All the transportation moved on its own!

Earth needs to catch up.

And the people around the girls and I looked peculiar as well. A saw a lady with pointed ears and blue skin, a man with an extra arm, and children with angel-like wings placed on their backs.

"Drool, Bl— _Varanda_."

I wipe off the slobber.

"You seem to like Magix," Musa suggested, her hands on her hips.

"Like it? We've only been here for five minutes and I never want to leave!" I cry.

"It's a very important, historical area," Techna says, typing on what looks like a phone and a computer combined. "The city has truly evolved from its original, medieval roots. This place has to be the most highly advanced city in the mixed Magic Dimension."

I can believe it. I can't believe this in my _life_ now. Everyday, surrounded by magic and secrets, along with fairies, knights, _witches_...! If Younger Me knew that this place existed, I would've ditched my parents a long time ago.

The girls and I walked through the _amazing_ city, looking at the different places. They had a couple clothing stores (we lost Stella. She started looking at all the clothes. It took us almost forty minutes to find her, and we almost rang out a _missing child_ notice. She thought it was amusing. We did not), different hang-out areas, and even a gigantic park. How could _one_ city hold _all_ of this? ("Magic," the other girls answered as if it was the simplest thing ever. Oh, if only they knew...)

We decided to eat at this place called _The Seven Nymphs_ (interesting name). The food was really good, but it was also stuff I had never tried before. Like - none of it. They were foreign foods! I decided on the _Life Leaf Soup_ , and - lemme tell you - that was _delicious_. It tasted like Heaven in a bowl, and I finished it too fast, so I was sad. The other girls got joy out of my pain. They ate slowly (well, not Musa. She finished a bit after me.) and slightly daintily. But I mean, what do I expect? they're princesses!  
  


I learned some interesting things about the other girls.

Flora has a younger sister named Rose, of whom she loves dearly. She's super nice, and I can already tell she's the mom friend. She'll scold you if you swear and tries to stay out of trouble, but she's also a good listener, so if any of us need anything, we can go talk to her. She has the power of nature, so she can control every aspect of - dare I say - _flora_. She treats the plants as if they're her children, which I find adorable. She also can communicate with them, and turns out that plants hear all. Now I feel bad for that tree I kicked on the way here...

Musa's super laid-back and chill. She also has a bit of a sailor-mouth (much to Flora's dismay), which I find quite funny. Musa can make a song about _everything_ , including food. She made a whole rap about her food at _Seven Nymphs_. She's a daredevil as well, and I don't think she has a lot of shame. She's mentioned that she once stood on top of a temple and started singing in another language. She embarrassed the crap out of her parents, but she says it's worth it. Her power's music, like her name, which makes a lot of sense. I don't think there's a song she _doesn't_ know!

Techna's peculiar. She's extremely intelligent and logical, and when she speaks I feel stupid. I don't think there's anything she _doesn't_ know. She even knows the amount of students in the school _and it's only her first day_! The problem with her, though, is that she lacks emotion. There's no excitement, no interest, no nothing in her voice. She seems quite dead. Dunno why. I feel as if it'd be rude if I asked. She has her own gadgets which _she_ invented (impressive!), and she can repair, remake, and redesign any piece of technology out there. Though, she doesn't seem to understand metaphors (I was talking about "Callisto", and how it pours cats and dogs there, and she asked if it was a custom to drop "canines" and "felines" there. I had to explain to her that I'm referring to rain. Odd). Her power's technology.

We were talking about the hottest new singer in Magix (someone named _Fiora_ ) while I was trying to call my parents to tell them I'm here safely, but no notifications were coming through my phone. There was no Wi-fi, no texts, no calls, and I couldn't find the right Wi-fi network!

"What's wrong?" Stella asks, looking at me struggling with my phone.

"There's absolutely no internet whatsoever! And _no network works_! Argh!" I angrily type incoherent words into my phone.

"Here, give it to me." Techna holds her hand out. "I can fix it."

"Yeah!" Musa cries. "She fixed my left earbud wire! _Lifesaver_."

I hand her my phone, but am confused when she begins laughing a bit spitefully.

"What is it?" I ask.

"What kind of phone is this?" she asks, holding her hand over her mouth.

"An iPhone. Like a good bit of people—where I'm from—have." I place my hands on my hips.

"This is ancient technology. This can be dating back to before the Phoenix and Dragon Wars. Where did you get this?" Techna asks.

"Well, I didn't know that." I snatch it out of her hands, but she takes it back. "If you wanna talk to someone, let me upgrade it." She pulls a card out of her pocket. "Use the old fashioned phone booth over there." She points her finger over to a blue phone booth. Damn. I haven't seen a phone booth since I was born. I thought they were extinct. I take her card and head over there.

There's no one around it, thank God, and I got in with ease. There were some odd buttons all over, but luckily, there was a sign explaining how to use it...in more than one language. Luckily, they had it in English, but they had it in _tons_ of other magical languages. Damn. Learning regular Earth languages was hard enough. How am I supposed to learn _magical_ languages, too?

Placing the card inside and dialling the home phone, I bring the yellow landline phone to my ear and wait for them to pick up. I only have fifteen minutes to talk to them.

" _Hello_?"

"Hi, Mom!" I cry, relieved to hear my mother's voice. Emotions began coming back, and I swallowed the lump in my throat. I missed them more than I thought I would.

" _Bloom_!" Mom cries, sounding just as glad to hear me as I did her. " _How are you_? _How is everything_? _Did you get in safely_? _Bloom, you_ _ **have**_ _to tell me_!"

"Everything's fine, Mom," I say. "We're sharing not a dorm, but an _apartment_ , with three other girls. We're currently in the city, getting something to eat. Mom, you should see it here! It's so wonderful!"

" _I wish I could_. _Ah_ , _Bloom. You're living a fairytale. Any girl your age would_ _ **kill**_ _to be in your shoes. Are you not overwhelmed_?"

Was I? I mean, yes it happened quite fast, but if I had never decided to go to the park with Kiko, I may not've met Stella and become part of a world I never imagined existed. I can handle it...right. "Dunno. I'll probably get used to it as the months pass."

" _Please don't talk about time passing. It's getting hard enough to cope with you not being here, I don't wanna_ _ **think**_ _about even_ _ **more**_ _time passing. I can practically hear your father's sobs from in here_."

I laugh softly. Poor Dad. He's probably more cut up than Mom is about me leaving. He rarely let me go anywhere by myself, let alone to a school in a _whole 'nother dimension_.

We talk for a bit, us talking about what school will be like, how everything's going without me, and by now, the moon's high up in the sky and stars are twinkling overhead. According to Mom, the Magic Dimension and Earth have different time zones. While here, it's evening, for them, it's early afternoon _tomorrow_. I'm lucky I didn't call them while the sun was still up. They would probably just be getting up.

But suddenly, as I'm finishing up the call with Mom, I see a suspicious figure past the booth. Mom's words humming in my ear, I see a familiar, large, yellow, overall-dressed ogre (wearing pink glasses. Huh?), sneaking around, trying to avoid the gazes of everyone around. He looked like he was up to no good, and he was going closer to where the girls' table were. Uh oh. _Was he after Stella again_?

"Uh, Mom, I gotta go. Tell Dad I love him, okay?" I say hastily.

" _Uh, okay. Bye bye, Bloom_!"

I hang up the call, pull the card out of the slot, hop out of the booth, and begin following Knut, trying to see where he was going. He was too stupid to notice me following me, and I was able to be practically right next to him. He stopped a couple feet away from the girls, watching them closely. His eyes seemed more focused on Stella than the others, but he watched them as well, occasionally muttering something like, "Extra work," and "The Highnesses won't like that, no". The Highnesses? Were they his bosses?  
  


He cautiously takes another turn, and I continue following him. Once I figure out what his whole goal is, I'll tell the girls, and we'll get out of here. This was pretty stupid of me; I mean, I can't even transform yet! but I can't risk Stella's safety. She won't be harmed by that ugly ogre on _my_ watch. None of the girls.

He kept slinking around the place, trying not to be caught by any officials and whatnot. Well, he was doing a sh*tty job at it; I'm _right behind_ him! Maybe ogres are known for being stupid.

He finally backed into an alleyway, and I hid behind the wall, poking my head out just barely so I could see.

"The coast is clear," he whispers to no one in particular. I'm confused. Huh. Maybe I'm right about my theory on ogre stupidity. But suddenly, three figures appear in the light, negative energy radiating off of them, making me shudder. They definitely don't look friendly.

The first one had long, murky colored brown hair, with dirty blonde painting the front, which rained down over her shoulders in a bit of a zig-zag way. Dark purple makeup covered her eyes and lips with pointed eyebrows above her golden eyes. A silver choker wrapped around her neck led down to her waist (in a very peculiar manner. Fashion in the Magic Dimension is so different. Hm.). She wore a purple bodysuit that stopped above her ankles. On her feet were pointed, purple boots, and snug on her hands were light purple gloves and a dark armband on her left bicep. In the middle of her outfit was a white _D_ , probably her first initial since all the other girls had the same on their outfits.

The middle girl had puffed out bluish-purple hair stuck out in many angles. Her makeup was similar to the first girl's except they were more of a magenta color. Long, fingerless gloves covered her forearms with long, fake, purple nails, and the same choker that the _D_ girl had was placed on her neck. Her entire bodysuit was magenta, but it barely reached past her thighs, and underneath it were long, pinkish leggings with _magenta_ boots finishing the look. An _S_ was in the middle of her outfit. Once again: _probably_ her initial.

The final one seemed to be the leader of the three. She held herself up high, striking authoritative aura and cruelty. Turquoise makeup decorated her face, with light lip gloss slid over her lips. She had practically _ice_ hair, and it was tied up in a _very_ high ponytail (once again, _very_ interesting fashion trends, Magic Dimension...). She wore turquoise gloves that...weren't...really...gloves (I hope you know what I mean. I mean - I don't know _what the hell_ those are) and wore the same type bodysuit the others wore, except hers at a flat collar, and in the middle, a white _I._ She had long, blue nails like the _S_ one, and I kinda liked them, not gonna lie. But all in all, I think I may or may not have just sh*t myself....

"Well, don't stand there like a horse," said _I_. "What did you find?"

"Princess Stella's here, your highnesses." Knut jumbles his words as if he was scared of the ladies in front of him. "And—and—she—"

"Speak English, you disgusting ogre. You're so good-for-nothing, if we didn't need you for our dirty work, I would've killed you a long _time_ ago!" _S_ 's hands spark dangerously, causing Knut to step back in fear.

" _Stormy_ ," _D_ hisses. "Quit it. He looks like he's going to have a heart attack. We can't have him dying before giving us valuable information."

Stormy crosses her arms and rolls her eyes in annoyance.

"Try again, but in _English_ this time," _I_ says.

Knut takes a deep breath a couple and retries his explanation. "Princess Stella is here - right here - in Magix. Though, she's not alone. She has three other girls with her, and I caught sight of that Earthling girl while I was coming here."

 _D_ growls. "That damned princess. She's never perfectly alone like we want her to."

"She's probably too cowardly to go anywhere alone," Stormy suggests. Definitely not. Stella doesn't seem bothered by too many things. Including illegal stuff (I've taken a new identity, for God's sake! And - uh, I would like it a lot of Knut didn't call me the _Earthling girl_ all the time. I have a name, dammit). "She's scared of us, and we know it."

"Of course she is." _I_ crosses her arms. "Who isn't? We're the most feared witches in Cloud Tower. It would be foolish _not_ to be. But back to the matter at hand." _I_ seems to be too calm about this. "We don't have to worry about the other girls. They are just some pesky first years. We're seniors; if we got beaten by first years, we shouldn't be allowed to call ourselves the Trix."

Trix? I...can't actually make fun of that name. It's actually pretty well thought of... Maybe _I_ could make a name for myself.

Suddenly, things go silent. It's kinda unnerving, and I poke my head out, trying to figure out what just happened. Knut, _I_ , _D,_ and Stormy notice the silence. _D_ is staring off into the distance as if in a trance. It's kinda creepy...

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Stormy asks.

"We're being watched..." _D_ explains.

 _Ah, sh*t_. Please don't be me. Maybe it's an intruding cockroach...?

 _I_ rolls her eyes. "Ugh. Some people just don't mind their own business." She snaps her fingers. "Darcy, you know what to do." _Uh, what_?

Darcy puts her hands together, and all in a sudden, _two_ Darcies appear, but one disappears into the ground while the other stays in her position. Dark Magic, probably. Maybe she _is_ trying to catch that pesky cockr—

A sharp pain hits my back, throwing my forward onto my stomach. I feel skin tear on my arm, and it sticks. G*ddamn it. At this moment in time, I wish I was a cockroach....

"Hm. And who is _this_ little girl?" _I_ snarls.

Darcy and Stormy fold their arms and give me a look of pure malice and cruelty. Ooh, I don't _like this_! Lord above, save me!

"Didn't your mother ever teach you _not_ to listen in to people's _private_ conversations?" Stormy asks.

"With the raggedy way _she's_ dressed, I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't _have_ a mother," Darcy says. Um, rude. I'm not the one with a crazy-*ss _choker_ on my neck.

"Don't even try anything," I warn. Huh. When I'm nervous, my mouth likes to talk for me. Reminds me of when I was on Earth and Stella was about to be murdered, and I just _had_ to step in. Well, if I didn't, I wouldn't have discovered I'm a fairy, and Stella might've been seven feet in the ground. "I-I'm a fairy!"

Unfortunately, the Trix (like Knut was back then) did not seem too fazed. _I_ even rolls her eyes. "Oh, really? A fairy, huh? Come on, little fairy. Show us some tricks."

"I'm not a dog," I hiss. I stand up tall, hoping that my magic will do the intimidating for me. "You wanna see magic? I'll give you some magic." I hold my hand out towards _I_ , hoping that my magic would appear and hit one of them, but I don't hear anything. Laughter starts around me, and I'm dismayed to see that _nothing f*cking_ _ **happened**_. "T-that was just a warning. Keep on, and I-I'll—"

"Save the trash talk for later, _fairy_ ," Darcy snaps. "But once we're done with you..." _I_ and Stormy walk up behind her, all with the same evil looks on their faces. "There will _be_ no later." She snaps her fingers. "Icy. Would _you_ like to do the honors?"

Icy steps forward, flexes her fingers, and holds them out towards me. "Of course, dear sister. Youngest first, right?" She chuckles lightly, then without any warning, shoots magic ice shards towards me. I don't have time to dodge the attack, and she's able to scratch me all over my arms and face. I try to run (maybe I can alert Stella and the others that I'm in trouble), but something grabs my ankle and drags me back towards the witches. It's a dark, shadow-y hand, conjured up by Darcy. I wiggle my leg, trying to break free, but before I can do so, Stormy shoots short, lightning-like attacks towards my abdomen, and they hurt _tremendously._ I can feel blood rushing in my mouth. Darcy snaps her fingers, and the arm that's wrapped around my ankle throws me into a random pile of garbage in the alley. I hit my face on the trash can, blood dripping out of my nose, and a cut forming on my temple. I'm in such pain, but I'm not going to beg for mercy. I just need to—

I don't finish that thought. Icy shows up again and uses her ice magic to cause _great_ pain in my head. Like the brain freezing. "Aw, is _poor, little fairy in pain_?" she mocks. She jeers, then suddenly goes back to menacing. "Pathetic."

Darcy's eyes go black. She brings back the black hand, but this time, it wraps around my upper half, and it slams me against the wall. I can practically _hear_ my teeth chatter and ribs crack. I cough out blood. You know, this would be a _great_ time for my magic to come back.

But nothing happens. I'm stuck.

"Looks like the fairy is _at a loss_ for words." Stormy laughs. F*ck you. She turns her head towards Icy. "Can I finish the job?"

Icy sighs. "Fine. But make it quick. _I_ want to leave a little surprise for the next person that comes here."

Prize? What prize—

Almost _excruciating_ pain erupts in my entire body. It felt like I had been lit on fire. Stormy was using her lightning-like magic to hurt me. Darcy comes up next. My brain becomes fuzzy, and I can't see nor think of anything except _black_. Pure _black_. It hurts. It hurts. _It hurts so damn much_!

Stormy growls and creates a new scary power move. A tornado. I'm surprised no one has come here, yet. There's probably an invisibility spell placed over it. The tornado wraps me into it, and I'm thrown roughly back on the ground with another painful thud. My ribs are practically _crying out_ for help now, and I can feel blood drip down my cheek.

"Icy. It's your final move," Darcy says, gesturing to me as if I'm an object.

The ice witch walks forward and raises an eyebrow. "Any last words before I turn you into a popsicle?"

I can't stop trembling, and the only thing I can taste is metallic. "Yeah. F*ck you." And I spit blood into her face.

Stormy looks offended and prepares to hurt me once more. "Oh, you're gonna pay for that, you little -"

"No, no, Stormy." Icy stops her. "I got this." She turns back to me. "You're gonna get what you deserved, little fairy." And with that, she begins to freeze me. My body temperature begins to drop, starting at my feet, and inching closer to my head. I can't move. I can't move, I can't _move_. I can't breathe, my breathing is constricting. Please help, please help, please help, please _help_!

"Bye bye..." Icy whispers sweetly. I want to cry for help, but I can't. I can't speak, I can't breath, I can't do _anything_.

The last thing I see is the witches and the harshest chill I have ever felt.

* * *

"And then I was like, 'B*tch, if you think _my_ outfit is bad, you should take a look at yours; you look like a monkey!" Stella can't help the loud laugh that escapes her mouth, her shoulders shaking in humor, along with Musa.

Flora covers her mouth with her hand as she laughed, something she unconsciously did. She sat next to Techna, who was working on Varanda's phone. She bit her lip in concentration, every now and again, pushing her magenta hair out of her face as she twisted the screwdriver and using her magic to spark life into it. She sits up straight, flips the phone onto its back and proudly pushes it forward. "I have succeeded in updating the elder machine."

"Damn! that fast?" Stella takes the phone and feels on the screen. "Huh. Guess I don't have to beg Daddy to buy me a new one after I break one from getting angry at the news." She sighs.

"Where _is_ Varanda?" Flora asks, looking around in sight for their red-headed friend. "She should've been back by now."

"She said she was going to talk to her parents," Musa explains. "How much money was on that card you gave her?" She turns her head towards Techna.

"At least enough to speak for around fourteen-fifteen minutes."

Musa shrugs. "Hey! maybe she just _really_ wanted to talk to her old folks. I know people who're _super_ attached to their parents. Don't understand why, though. I would chop my own head off if _I_ had to stay with my dad twenty-four-seven."

"Maybe she got distracted shopping," Stella inquires. " _I_ would've. Have you _seen_ those shoes?" She laughs. "I wouldn't be surprised. Magix City _is_ the best city in terms of fashion."

"Well, we should go find her." Flora stands up. "She seems like she doesn't understand this city well, so it won't be surprising if she gets lost. And besides, cities like these are main places for fairy trafficking and kidnapping." She gasps. "I _do_ hope neither of those happen to her!"

"Flora is correct." Techna stands as well. "From my research, most people who lose their way here almost never are rediscovered."

"Alrighty." But before leaving, Musa takes another sip of her drink, then continues on their way.

They walk through the whole of the city, keeping an eye out for their friend, but they could find no sign of her. (But then, Stella got distracted looking at one of the boutique's dresses and had to be dragged away by Flora.)

They stand beside another building, feeling a bit dejected at the fact that they could not find Varanda. Flora twiddles with her fingers nervously, fear creeping into her veins.

"Something bad must've happened to her, I just know it."

"Quit worrying," Musa suggests. "Maybe we can't find her because she just got back to the table and now is looking for _us_."

"I'm not so sure." Flora sighs. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"Oi, Techna—" Stella cocks her head towards their short-haired friend, typing away on her mini-computer. "You got something on that—c _omputer - thingy_ —that'll help us find Bl—Varanda?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," Techna replies. "I am trying to program her whereabouts." She waves her hand in front of the keys, and suddenly, a ladybug appears from inside of it, flying above her head. Stella steps back dangerously. "Ew, bugs," she mutters.

"There is nothing to be frightened of." The ladybug lands in Techna's pale hand. "'Tis not a _real_ insect. 'Tis a mechanical one, one that can examine the area and scope out anyone I program it to find. I have programmed it to find Varanda, and my gadgets have never failed me before."

The ladybug flies around once more.

"Damn, you're a lifesaver, Tech!" Musa eyes the ladybug with wonder as it continues to fly in place.

"I am a fairy, but thank you for the observation."

The ladybug flies ahead speedily, in the direction of Varanda. The girls follow it, trying not to bump into people as they pass. The machine starts going into the more _sketchy_ area of Magix, slightly worrying them. They arrive in a back-alley where they see something horrifying.

Three witches, along with an ogre ("Knut _again_?" Stella hisses) were surrounding the familiar face of Varanda, bloodied and bruised. A practically _ice haired_ witch steps in front of her and uses her magic to freeze her completely solid, the moon glinting off of Varanda's now frozen figure. The witch laughs. "That felt good." She wipes the blood off of her cheek. "Alright, sisters, let's get back to—"

"You're not going anyway, _witch_!"

The witches turn their heads towards the four first-year Alfea students who had their fists clenched and determined looks on their faces. The ladybug circles around Techna's hand and quietly lands on her palm. She places it back into her mini-computer.

"You better stay away from her!" Flora cries, stepping forward.

Darcy rolls her eyes. "More fairies. We should've known."

"Where one fairy goes, the others can't be too far behind," Stormy chimes in.

"No matter." Icy glares at the lot of them. "If they're anything like this one -" She points towards the ice statue that was Varanda "- this'll be nothing." She waved her hand in boredom. "Knut, attack."

The ogre nods and charges towards the fairies, but before he could land an attack, the girls joined in with a blast of light, and they were suddenly in their fairy forms, ready for battle.

Stella was back in her standard fairy outfit, the same heels, top, shorts, scepter, and whatnot, with her hair pulled back into pigtails. Flora's hair was the same, flowing down her back, but she wore a petal-shaped dress colored in different shades of pink with detached sleeves on both arms. On her feet were magenta boots, and the outfit was finalized by green, transparent, tear-drop shaped wings.

Musa wears a red one-shouldered tank top and skirt with transparent fabric connecting them together and covers her midsection. Blood red, knee-high, platform boots on her feet, a purple armband with two strings of fabric hanging down on her upper bicep, and the same purple headphones she carries around on her ears finishes the look. Her wings are four, blue, insect wings on her back.

Techna, the final girl, wears a dark purple full-bodysuit with a green gem on her upper chest. Powder blue sleeves/gloves are wrapped around her arms, and a pointed, purple helmet, with the same green gem on her chest on the bottom of it rests on her head, protecting her magenta head. On her back are four, green bars that are too small to be able to fly with, but they could transform into a glider on her command.

Knut attempts to land a crushing hit on the fairies, but they zip out of the way, taking flight.

"You girls hold him off," Stella commands, keeping her eyes on her target. "I'm going for Bloom."

Stella takes her ring off and changes it into a scepter and darts for Bloom, but Knut stops her and attempts to throw her out of the way. Stella holds up her scepter to block him from doing so. She flies up into the air and blasts him from the back, pushing him in front of Flora, Musa, and Techna.

Stormy groans. "Come _on_ , Knut. They're just puny fairies. If you can't beat them, you're the weakest ogre in the Magic Dimension."

The ogre growls under his breath and grows more aggressive. He reaches up and grabs Musa by her boot, but the bluenette spits in his face and hisses, "Not today," and kicks him in the face. He goes rolling down the alleyway, but he gets up quickly, ready to attack again. Flora holds her hands together, roots growing inside her palms, and shoots them at him. The roots grow in size and wrap around Knut's legs, then creeping up all over his body, wrapping him in tight, unforgiving vines. Techna comes up next and shoots what appears to be electricity out her hands, hitting him square in the chest, causing him to yowl in pain. The magic comes to wrap around his neck, electrocuting him.  
  


And finally, Musa comes forward and uses her music to conjure up large stereos blasting ear-splitting music into Knut's ears. It doesn't hurt anyone else; just Knut, and Musa clicks her tongue and taunts, "Bad day not to bring your headphones, wasn't it, ogre?"

Drowning out the sounds of pain coming from Knut, Icy pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance. "What did I expect? he got beat by an Earthling girl." She snapped her fingers in the direction of the other two behind her. "Let's teach these fairies a lesson. Darcy? the first move's yours."

Darcy steps backwards where Stella is slowly trying to thaw Varanda, but she catches her by surprise, grabs her by her hair, and throws her towards the other girls with a painful thud.

"Stella, are you alright?" Flora asks, helping her up.

"Fine, fine." Stella wipes herself off. "I was able to unfreeze Varanda for the most part, but I haven't gotten to her torso yet." She groans. "If only these _witches_ will kindly _f*ck off_."

"They're not gonna _kindly_ do anything," Musa inquires. "Guess we're gonna have to show them what happens when they mess with us. Come at us, _witches_!"

Stormy rolls her eyes. "Aw, isn't that _cute_? These _fairies_ think they can take on _us_."

"Listen here, fairies." Icy flips her long hair behind her. "You _really_ think you can take on us." She laughs dryly. "I mean, you _see_ what happened to your friend, right?" She gestures to the half-frozen Varanda of Callisto. A small growl emits from Musa's mouth. "I'm feeling gracious. We'll give you a choice. We'll let you go and not harm you _if_ you graciously give us the scepter." She brandishes her hand in the direction of Stella's scepter. " _Or_ you can choose to reject the offer and we'll _kill_ you. Sounds good?"  
  


Suddenly, a sharp, triangular object goes flying towards Icy's face. She ducks out of the way, but it hits Stormy square on the cheek, causing her to cry out in pain and blood to rush out of it. The object comes boomeranging back to its original owner, who seems completely unbothered by the whole thing.

"I believe you understand our answer, do you not, ladies?" Techna raises an eyebrow as she places her boomerang away.

"Alright. I was good either way." She quickly shoots ice arrows in the direction of the fairies, making sure they hit their targets, slashing at the fairies' skin. Next was Darcy with her mind-twisting spells. She cast a spell, and the entire world around the fairies began to grow hazy and fuzzy, with headaches growing. While the fairies were struggling with trying to get out of the spell, Icy began to create the area around them unbearably cold, slowly lowering their body temperature.

Stormy steps forward last, shooting out a lightning-like spell towards them, looking extremely painful, ready to hit its target. Techna steps forward and creates a shiny, heavy, green shield in front of them all, protecting them from the spell. Stormy pushes forward, trying to break through the shield. There was a significant difference between their power strengths, and it appeared as if Techna wouldn't be able to hold on for long.

"Thanks, Tech," Musa says next to her.

"There is no time for gratitude!" Techna steps backwards as her strength weakens. "You must rescue Varanda and—"

Before she could finish that sentence, Stormy breaks through the shield, throwing all the girls backwards into walls and sliding across the harsh ground. Hissing in pain, the girls attempted to stand back up, but Stormy sent another harsh blast at that, warning them to stay down.

Darcy continued to use her mind-twisting magic, torturing her enemies who were writhing in pain, trying to fight through the pain.

Finally, Icy steps forward, looking pleased with herself. "Well, this was fun, but now we have to end this. Bye bye, fairies!" Holding her hand above her head as she prepared a final blow to the girls, she laughed evilly. Unfortunately for her, Stella still had magic left in her scepter, and she flicks it, causing the girls (plus a frozen Varanda) to teleport to a safer place, just in time. Icy had finished her spell.

* * *

You know, I usually like winter. My birthday's in December (the last winter month in the year), and it's the Christmas holidays which make my birthday even better. And guess what? it snows! Ain't that awesome?

Well, now, as I'm being thawed out, I know how the food in my freezer feels like. Damn, I feel bad for just leaving that stuff in there. I know it's basically still summer, but my body temperature is so freaking low. At least Stella's helping me out. Ouch. Brain freeze. _Brain freeze_?

Stella holds onto my shoulders as she warms me up. "You feeling good, Bloom?"

"Yeah, k-kinda," I answer, my teeth still chattering.

She pulls a piece of ice out of my hair (speaking of my hair, it looks as if I've just been drenched. Damned ice). "Ah, well. For an Earthling girl, you held out for long. I never would've expected it, but then again, you _did_ save me from Knut with just a stick and wonky powers." She laughs, but I'm not.

Uh oh.

"Stella... Stop talking," I tell her, not looking at her.

"Why?" She turns her head to look towards my line of eyesight. Flora, Musa, and Techna were watching us, looking skeptical.

"I had figured there was something peculiar about you," Techna says, staring at us.

"An Earthling? That sounds like a story." Musa laughs.

"Is there something you wanna tell us Stella and _Bloom_?" Flora asks sternly, placing her hands on her hips.

"Oops." Stella laughs nervously. "You heard all of that."

"Affirmative."

"You're kinda loud, Stell."

"It doesn't matter if we heard it." Flora's usually calm voice switches to a more strict tone - kinda like how my mother sounds if I don't clean my room when she asks. "You lied to us, and we want a reason why."

Stella sheepishly looks at the ground, then back at me, then up at the girls, then back to the floor. "It's a long story."

"And it's a long way back to Alfea. Get to talking."

* * *

And Stella does (and I chime in every now and again). At the end of it, the girls seemed less mad and more intrigued. An Earth girl with powers? sounds like a fairytale, but I find it odd how _they_ —the fairies - think that _I'm_ fictional. I thought I was normal less than two days ago!

We arrive back to Alfea around midnight. The gates had already closed, but Techna knew how to hack the system, so we attempted to sneak back inside....

But Miss Griselda has eyes like a hawk, and she and the headmistress catch us in no time.

" _Freeze, students_!" we hear from above. We all freeze, and I can hear my heart pounding. Maybe they'll let us off on a warning if we tell them what happened. Faragonda and Griselda come floating down from _nowhere in particular_ in front of us.

"Where _were_ you? Curfew was three hours ago!" Griselda scolds. Flora opens her mouth to explain, but Griselda cuts her off. "Doesn't matter. You still broke the rules. _On your first day_." She eyes Stella. "Not surprised; you're hanging around Princess Stella."

Said girl rolls her eyes.

"Are we gonna be punished?" asks Musa.

Faragonda shakes her head. "It's your first day; we're not gonna be so harsh. Just be on time next time. But if this happens again, we will be forced to have to punish you. Now, head on to bed."

The girls silently smile at each other, glad that they're not gonna get in trouble. I walk along with them, but I hear a voice stop me. "Not _you_ , Varanda." Stella stops when she also hears my name. Faragonda wrings her hands together. "I think you have something you wish to tell us."

"You're not really Princess Varanda of Callisto, are you?" asks Griselda.

I sigh. I can't lie to the teachers. "No... I'm not..."

Griselda looks insulted and taken aback. Faranda just shakes her head. "So, you _lied_ to us? Young lady, this is _unacceptable_!"

Stella steps in. "Headmistress, Miss Griselda, it wasn't all Bloom's fault. I was the one who pushed to do it, even though she told me it was wrong."

"We'll deal with you later, Princess Stella," Faragonda says. "Right now, we want to hear from Bloom. Is that your name?"

I nod. "Yeah, that's me."

"Why did you lie?" Faragonda wonders, speaking softly. "You could've just told us the truth. We could've figured something out."

"Look..." I sigh. "I'm not from here. Not from Magix, I mean. From...the Magic Dimension. I'm from Earth."

Both Griselda and the headmistress look at me as if I'm a ghost (do those exist here?).

"Yeah... That was my reaction when I found out. One minute, I'm regular, and the next, I'm blasting magic out of my hands left and right. When Stella told me that I could learn how to control my powers, I jumped at the idea, but I signed up late, so you wouldn't've let me in. I'm sorry. We had to do...what we had to do. I'll go pack my stuff."  
  


Damn. I probably shouldn't have gotten all excited. I notice the other girls are still standing there, waiting for Faragonda's reaction.

"Wait, Miss Bloom," she finally says, stopping me. "What you did was wrong, yes, but you couldn't help what you did. And I do believe you; that barrier wouldn't have let you in if you weren't a magical creature." She clasps her hands together. "I shall let you stay, Bloom, but don't you ever lie to me, Griselda, or any of the other staff ever again, understand?"

I nod happily. _Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshhhhh_! "Thank you, headmistress."

"You're very welcome. Now." She claps. "Go on to bed! We don't need you to be sluggish and tired in the morning."

I join the other girls and we silently cheer. I get to stay! I really get to stay!

* * *

"I like the name _Trix_ ," Musa says. "It sounds killer, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, I thought I was the only one who thought that!" I cry. "And yes—it _is_ killer. Pun intended."

Everyone laughs except for Techna, who seems to be trying to figure out the pun part.

"Well, if them witches can have a killer name, _we_ should have a killer name!" Stella suggests. It sounds like a good idea and all of us agree.

"The question is," Techna replies, "is what shall it be?"

"Maybe... The Celestial Light!" Stella suggests.

I raise my eyebrow. "Uh, Stella? You're the only light fairy."

Stella blinks a couple times. "Oops. Oh, well. It sounds nice. It's on the suggestion table." ("But there is no table." "It's an expression.")

"Maybe... The Life Givers!" Flora comes up next. "We save lives and help people!"

I cringe. "Flora, it sounds like we're either nurses or pregnant women."

"What about... The Rockin' Fairies! It sounds—" Musa clicks her tongue and brings her thumb and forefinger to form the _perfect_ symbol on her hand.

"Sounds like an emo rock band." Stella waves a dismissive hand towards Musa, who sticks her tongue back at her.

"Hm... What about _Wings_?" Techna suggests. "I do not enjoy the simplicity, but the Trix have a simple, yet clever name."

I think for a moment. "Yeah... That sounds good, but notice how the Trix have an _x_ at the end of theirs? It's a play on the word _tricks_ , but with an x. We could do that, too!"

"Smart idea," says Flora. "A lot of things in the Magic Dimension have an _x_ at the end. The reason for it is because the letter itself means _victory_."

"That sounds so cool..." I breathe. "So, is it official? We'll be called _Wings_ , but with an _x_."

"So... Winx, then?" Musa asks, seemingly pleased with the idea.

I nod. "We're the Winx."

"The Winx _club_ ," Stella adds.

"But we are not a club..." Techna points out. "We are a group, so should we not be referred to as the _Winx Group_?"

"Uhhhh, _nah_!" Musa disagrees. "Winx Group sounds lame. Winx _club_ sounds awesome."

"Alrighty. I guess we're the Winx Club!" I say.

"I like the sound of that!" Stella cries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter is my favorite one i've written so far. there's no specific reason; it's just 'cause.


	3. Scissors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bloom can't find scissors, and all hell breaks loose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> favorite chapter time!

**O** ur first week of school was...something.

It's very different than I expected. Actually, I don't know _what_ I was expecting. It's a magic school. We have courses like Magic 101, History of Magic, and Metamorphosymbiosis (a mouthful!). They're all a whole bunch of classes where we learn how to use different forms of magic. It's fun to watch... Not really fun when _you_ have to do it. Some of these spells are difficult to create, especially when you _don't have your fairy form_.

The teachers are cool, as well (even Griselda, but I'm a little scared of her. She put twenty students into detention on our _first day_! Gah!). The rest of the girls and I take classes with Griselda, Palladium, Wizgiz, and DuFour.

We've already met Griselda, so I don't need to talk about her much (but Stella and Musa have the theory that she's secretly a troll. How rude).

Palladium's Flora's favorite, and I understand why. He's soft and calm and teaches the importance of preserving nature and becoming one with the world around us. "The plants aren't living in _our_ world," he says. "Rather, we're living in _their_ world." (He also teaches philosophy, an extra curriculum, which Flora takes, making her like him even more.)

Wizgiz is _my_ favorite professor. Why? because he's just so _weird_! He's like a dwarf/elf-thing hybrid, making him _super_ short, but he also can transform into numerous animals and people at his will, and I've sometimes bumped into him randomly without even knowing it. He has such a fun class, and it's very entertaining watching him scare Professor DuFour as a random animal.

Professor DuFour is pretty average as a professor. She's nice, yet strict, but she also treats us not just as her students, but as equals. She teaches Magical Literature and royal etiquette, an extra curriculum and lets us cut in with our own opinions and whatnot, like adults, so she's pretty cool. Though, she has such a terrible phobia of bugs and rodents, so boo hoo to the animal lovers. Kiko once showed up in my bag one day, and DuFour fainted. _Fainted_! Class had to be postponed... At least I didn't get detention... Though, Kiko got grounded by me, and now he has a rationed portion of carrots. Bad Kiko! Bad!

As for the other school aspects, we have school uniforms. They're really nice ones, like the ones you would see on a TV show or movie where the main and supporting characters go to a magic school. And they're color coded so we know the year you're in. The other first years, plus myself, wear red outfits, the second years wear blue, and the third years wear yellow. On the top of all of them is the symbol of Alfea, nice and pretty and gold. I usually assumed I would hate school uniforms, but these are _niiice_.

The other classmates are...okay. Except for Amyrill. She's a witch. She constantly talks about how she's descended from the greatest magic users in the whole of the Magic Dimension, and she says that she'll be at the top of the class like her parents...

And yet, we're only a week in, and Techna's already up there. I mean, I'm not surprised; she's the smartest person I know.

But other than Amyrill, the other girls are fine. They're kinda forgettable. Though, there are a few I would consider my friends, but not my _best_ friends.

"Friends, but not friends," Musa calls it.

"Companions," Flora says.

"Acquaintances," Techna refers to them as.

"Buddies," says Stella.

Needless to say, I love my friends.

But like I said before, it's so much harder to be in class when you barely even know how to control your powers, let alone transform. I can do classes like History of Magic with ease (it's basically history class except with magic and even crazier dates to remember), but I can't do classes like Magic 101 because of how weird my powers are. Example: one of the first lessons we were taught was to create a basic spell using our element. I was the only girl in the class who couldn't really do it. Everyone looked so professional, while mine reminded me of a really hot blob. Now, I've been spending a lot of time trying to perfect it, and I'm getting better. I just never knew how hard magic could be.

On Thursday, we had Metamorphosymbiosis with Professor Wizgiz again. Today's lesson was learning how to change our hairstyles and whatnot. You know? simple. "Look in the mirror," he instructed. "Imagine that you didn't wake up in time, and your hair looks an utter mess. Using this spell, you could fix your hair disaster. Maybe experiment with a new color. Close your eyes and envision it, and your magic'll do it for you."

I watch everyone around me do as told. One of the girls changed their hairstyle to a tight ponytail, quickly showing it off to the people around her desk, while another had changed their hair entirely to green, and it didn't look too bad. Stella, who sat one desk across from me, gave her hair pink highlights, which looked _awesome_ on her, by the way.

Alright. My turn.

I close my eyes, trying to see if I could change my hair's color or length or whatever. Maybe I could put it into two ponytails. I once wore pigtails in my hair for about a year, and I looked _smokin_ '!

I feel tingling in my body, and my hair feels like it's...moving? Ah! that must mean it's working! I open my eyes...but am disappointed when nothing happened. Dammit. Eighth time this week! Magic is harder than I thought. How did Harry Potter do this so easily? (Well, then again, he also was a wizard and not a fairy. Hehe, _Fairy_ Potter)

Wizgiz sees my disappointment and wobbles over to my desk. "Ah, Bloom, don't be discouraged. It takes a while to get used to your powers. I don't expect you to be an expert already; it's only the first week. I believe in you."

I smile at him. "Thanks..." But I _am_ going to get my magic in check. I'm a fairy, not a reject.

* * *

"Come on, Bloom! you've been at it for three hours now! I'm _starving_!"

"Well, I think you can be hungry for a couple more minutes, Stella. I _need_ to get this right!"

I'm in my room with Stella and Flora trying to do the _friggin'_ spell for Wizgiz. I know I shouldn't be stressing over this, but according to _almost every magical history book out there_ , this is one of the simplest spells a person could learn. And _I was failing it_.

If I don't get this spell, I'm going to pop a fuse. You probably don't want to see that; it gets ugly.

Flora was making tea over by her desk, watching us out of the corner of her eye. "Stella, stay with Bloom. Do take into account that Bloom's going to need extra work since she's barely used magic."

Stella groaned. "But we've been sitting here for almost thirty minutes here! If I don't eat soon, my body's gonna try to eat _itself_."

"I'm going to get it," I chant to myself. I close my eyes, holding the mirror close to me. _Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease_ _ **please**_. I feel tingling in my bones, and my hair seems to be doing something. I feel excited. _Did I get it_? I hear Stella snort next to me. Is that a good sign...? I open my eyes and can't help but swear; Flora cringes and reminds me of my language. My hair looks _horrible_. It's sticking up in random places, moving this way and that. _Ughhhhhhhh_. Why is this so difficult? Wasn't I able to f*cking blast Knut to oblivion on Earth? Why can't I do anything now?

"Oh, Stella, don't laugh at the poor girl." Flora brings the tea tray and hands a cup to both Stella and I. "She's trying her hardest."

"Hey! at least she did _something_ this time. Better than nothing!" Stella says.

"Yeah, but what good is it when it looks awful?" I feel dejected. "I can't do this."

Flora sits down next to me, and now I'm sitting between both her and Stella. "Sweetie, there is no need to worry. You should be proud of yourself, you know. An Earthling girl being able to do these things? That's exceptional. Don't lose hope."

"Yeah, what she said," says Stella. "You'll be fine. We have the entire rest of the year. If you still can't do the spell by winter break... Then, we might have a problem..."

I sigh and flop backwards. Suddenly, something comes to me. "Hey, ladies, can I ask you a slightly personal question?"

Stella raises an eyebrow, and Flora looks at me curiously. "What is it?"

"I'm constantly talking about why _I'm_ here and my journey to become a true fairy or whatever, but I've never asked why you two are here. What're your stories?"

Stella stands up all proudly. "Well, you see, being born a fairy basically means you have an obligation to protect your kingdom. Me being the princess of my own makes it much more stressful, but I can handle it. It's rarely heard of, for a princess to be both queen and the Guardian of your home, but I can do it! I want to go down in history as the fairy who did the impossible. To show everyone I'm not just a pretty face!" She takes a deep breath and sits back down. "But also...because I care about others. Solaria's been my home for as long as I can remember, and I don't want anything happening to it. My whole _family's_ there; if I lost one... I would never be able to forgive myself."

I nod in understanding. Stella may seem like your typical white, blonde, fashion-obsessed antagonist in every teen movie/book/whatever ever, but she's more than you think. It's why she's my best friend.

"What about you, Flora?" I ask, turning my head over to the other, but she doesn't look at us. She wrings her hands together in her lap, then turns back to us with an unsure look. "I..." She takes a deep breath before continuing. "Please don't make a huge fuss about it. It isn't easy for me to talk about it, let alone experience it."

I'm suddenly even more interested, but if she doesn't want to elaborate on it, I won't force her. "You don't _have_ to answer it, Flora, if it's _that_ personal."

She shakes her head. "No, no. You asked... And I'm obliged to answer. Stella spilled why she's here, and it would be impolite for me to deny you." She inhales. "It's for my entire realm. I'm princess of Linphea, but I have no right to the throne at the moment. You see, when I was nine and my little sister was four, our parents...were killed in an accident."

Both Stella and I couldn't help but gasp. Poor Flora.

"Well, I believe it wasn't an accident, but it was perceived that way. It just so happened that they were passing through enemy territory, and their vehicle was hijacked. After that... The crown immediately was passed on to me, but people revolted, saying that a nine-year-old girl shouldn't be allowed to be queen—which they were right about, don't get me wrong.

"Fortunately—or _unfortunately_ —they were able to get in contact with my mother's sister, Chrysanthemum. The crown was given to her, and the realm continued to thrive, but... My aunt is not a kind ruler. She raises taxes every month to pay for her lavish life! If you can't pay, she'll exile you or throw you in the dungeon or worse! And she's neglectful towards both me and my sister. It's why I've stepped in. Rose needs a mother, and I'm the closest thing to that. I try to be both her sister and her mother at the same time, and honestly, it's working. There have been times where she'll accidentally call me 'Mom'."

I can't help but coo at that. Imagine being Flora's sibling. Nicest person _ever_.

"I'm here...because I want to save my realm. I want to learn to become a leader. I want to return Linphea to its former glory. For me, for my people, for my sister..."

She stops, telling us we're allowed to speak. "Damn..." I say. "That's...pretty heavy, Flora. Didn't expect for you to have gone through something like that; you're usually so happy."

Flora smiles. "That means I'm doing _something_ right."

"That _explains_ _ **so**_ much!" Stella cries. "You're the mom friend!" She giggles. "Can I call you Mom, Mom?"

Flora shakes her head, laughing a bit. "Stella..." She picks up one of my pillows and throws it at Stella.

"Hey!" My blonde friend laughs loudly. She takes the pillow and attempts to hit Flora, but instead, it hits me.

"Oi! You're supposed to be hitting Flora, not me!" And it ends in us being in a heated pillow fight.

I won.

* * *

I feel stupid. I was all proud that I got to herbology class first, but after thirty minutes, nobody arrived. Professor Palladium had walked in there because he had forgotten something. "Bloom?" he asked when he saw me at my desk. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here for class!" I told him. "Did I read my schedule wrong?"

He laughed. "I think you did. There's no classes today! Didn't anyone tell you that?"

"Yeah, you just did," I muttered.

And now I'm here, in the hallway, trying to find one of my friends, asking them why they hadn't explained to me that _there was no school today_. I'm extremely annoyed at this point. I hate being the last to know something! I had to get up all early and put on my uniform for _nothing_!

Techna's the first person I see, sitting on an ottoman in the hall, swiping on a hologram. I will _never_ get used to this technology.

"Techna." I walk up to her, holding my books in my left hand, hunched over, annoyance written all over my face. "Why did no one tell me there was no school today?"

"We assumed you understood," she explains, not looking at me. "Everyone had received a notice informing us of the formal tonight."

I wrack my brain to see if I could understand smart people. "Formal? What formal? What's a formal?"

"A dance, in simple forms." Musa comes down from the staircase, dressed _wayy_ too casually, her short, navy hair pooling around her shoulders. She wore an oversized sweatshirt with leggings. If you didn't know any better, you would think she was a bored college student. "I've been trying to explain to Tech that not everyone understands her." She turns her head to our completely expressionless friend. "Probs should just go with _dance_ next time."

Techna sighs, turning off her hologram. "I am still growing accustomed - _used_ \- to common informality. 'Tis more difficult than I anticipated." There was nothing written on her face, but if you looked hard enough (which I _did_ ), she seemed a bit sad. She shakes her head, then stands up. "But Musa is correct. There is a _dance_ tonight. Supposedly, 'tis to welcome the unfamiliar and existing students returning to class."

"And the boys from Red Fountain'll be there, too," Musa cuts in. "That means plenty of _mingling_! _Aaand_!" She holds up a sparkly notebook. "Faragonda asked me to sing! My first gig! Ain't that awesome?"

I nod. "I've heard you sing before, Musa. You sound _awesome_. You could rival so many Earthen singers."

"Nah." She shrugs. "I ain't that good. Not compared to my mom."

I raise an eyebrow. "Is she a professional singer?"

Musa swallows. "Yeah, she was." She clears her throat and begins to ascend up the stairs. "Nice talking to y'all, but I have songwriting to do, so..." And she cuts the corner and disappears.

I blink a couple times. "That was weird," I say to Techna.

"There is the possibility that Musa does not like speaking of her mother," Techna answers. "She may have perished."

"Oh, damn." I mentally beat myself. "I sounded really rude, didn't I?"

"If my hypothesis is correct, affirmative; you were very tactless."

I stare at her blankly. "Sorry, it's hard for me to understand. You use these _big-brained_ words, and my pea brain can't comprehend them."

Techna crosses her arms. "My apologies. 'Tis difficult for you to understand. 'Tis hard for me to..." She groans. "What is the phrase? when you harmonize with others?"

I blink. "Uh... D-do you happen to mean _fitting in_?"

She snaps her fingers. "That is what I am referring to." She hangs her head. "My apologies." And she leaves, just like Musa did.

Damn, I'm really offending everyone today, aren't I?

* * *

The decorating committee does a _damn_ better job at decorating than at _my_ school. Outside, beautiful magic lights hung suspended in midair, long tables placed outside with strange looking flowers placed in the middle of each. There was an open area for people to dance, with a _huge_ stage with a floating microphone. Musa was up there, tapping on it, testing its workability. They weren't done yet, but it already looked absolutely _amazing_.

"Bloom? Are you drooling?"

I wipe off my saliva and come face-to-face with Flora, holding a large vase. "Sorry," I say. "I do that when I see something beautiful."

She giggles. "Well, you haven't seen anything yet." She places the vase onto one of the tables. "I've seen the design. It's going to look _beautiful_ ; you'll love it. I assume on Earth they don't have balls?"

I shake my head, then stop. "Well, we _do_ , but you have to be _extremely_ rich to go to one. Or royalty. Wait... I actually don't _know_ if royals on Earth have balls."

"Well, about seventy percent of everyone who attends here is related to royalty in some shape or form. The committee came to an agreement to hold a ball-like party to remind people of their home." She side-hugged me. "You'll love it."

Musa sees us and jumps down from the stage. "Hey, guys! Are you _pumped_ for tonight, 'cause I sure am. I've only sang in private for other people; never a crowd, but I'm not worried. I'll just imagine you're all my stuffed animals. Stuffed animals can't judge me."

Both Flora and I laugh. "Don't worry," Flora assures her. "You're gonna do great, sweetie."

"Really hope so." She opens her notebook. "I'm almost done with the song. Afterwards, it's all about getting the music together. I have a general idea of what I want it to sound like. I kinda want it to be like _dadadadda da daa daa_ , but _dadaadaaada da DA_ , sounds better in a way."

"I like—uh..." I try to figure out the beat of the first one. "The first one you said."

"Really? It seems a bit fast paced."

"Hey, it's not _my_ song. I'm just giving suggestions."

Musa clicks her tongue. "Anyway, I have basically the whole song done, but I'm trying to figure out how the outro will sound. I want it to be like the chorus -" She sings it out. " _You're the one who can do incredible things you do_ , but I want the outro to be like _You are a fairy, shine_ or something." She shrugs.

"It sounds awesome already!" I say. "This is making me even more hyped." Suddenly, my phone chimes, and it's a text from Stella in the group chat we made.

_Dress up time! We have to dress to impress, you know! :p_

* * *

When we enter the dorm room, Stella's in her room, running a brush through Techna's hair, who is sitting in Stella's vanity chair. Her hair is actually nice and shiny, almost to her shoulders.

"Ah, there you girls are! Come sit, come sit." Stella points towards her bed with the brush. Musa, Flora, and I do as told, watching Stella.

"Yo, what is this about?" Musa asks. "I was trying to get my music together!"

"We only have a couple more hours before the dance, so I have to get you all ready!" Stella explains. "You're all from unfamiliar realms which probably have _the most_ questionable outfits _ever_ , and I'm here to stop you from making the worst mistake of your lives. Techna, here, is my first client."

I snort. "More like victim."

Sure enough, Techna doesn't look very happy. Her arms are crossed in an indignant manner, looking pretty neutral, except for the hint of annoyance on her face. "I am not here under my own volition."

"Well, you're almost done anyway." Stella pats Techna on the head as if she's a dog. "But you _need_ to look nice tonight! There's gonna be dancing and food and music and _boys_. You don't wanna look like a mess in front of the boys do you?"

"It depends on your interpretation of the word _mess_ ," Techna grumbled.

"Like... _Not princess-like_. You're a princess, _I'm_ a princess; we have to _show_ people we _are_. Especially the _boys_! O-or the girls! I don't know your preference. Come on, Tech, you _have_ to interact with other humans at _some_ point."

"No. No, I do not."

"You _do_! You're gonna end up sad and alone if you don't. Do you wanna end up sad and alone?"

"I am naturally alone, yet I am not unhappy."

Stella waves a dismissive hand. "You and your asocial behavior. You _have_ to get out of your shell at some point." She turns to all of us. "Doesn't she need to get out of her shell?"

Musa and I make small agreeing noises, but Flora stands up and places her hands on her hips. " _Stella_. You can't just make a person do something they don't want to. It isn't right."

"But I'm _helping_!"

"According to Techna, you're not. Leave her alone." Stella opens her mouth to argue, but Flora raises her eyebrow, warning Stella that she probably shouldn't argue with her. Flora really _is_ the mom friend.

Stella groans. "Alright, whatever. I still have to help all of you! _Musa_!"

Musa, who is writing something down in her notebook, nearly jumps a foot in the air when her name is suddenly called. "What what _what_?"

"What are you gonna wear tonight?"

Musa scratches her head in thought. "Uh... I dunno. Look, I've been a little busy trying to make sure my first gig isn't an epic flop. I'll just wear..." She left for a minute, then showed up with a strapless, black with red flowers running down; white clips held up the small chest area and cut for her legs. "This?"

Stella clicks her tongue. "It's nice, but _wayy_ too simple. It looks like you're just going to some random dinner."

"Isn't that what this is?" Musa asks.

"No! It's a ball! You're supposed to look _hot_ at a ball!" Stella groans exasperatedly. "Okay, fine. Whatever. At least you're not going out in something like _that_." She points to Musa's casual look.

"Yo, don't insult me just because I don't look like Miss Magix every time I walk out into the world!"

She's not wrong. I have no idea what Miss Magix is, but I assume it's like Miss America or something, because Stella's civilian outfits are usually bright, showy, and _expensive_.

Stella rolls her eyes. "Flora! Before you _ground_ me, I wanna know what you're gonna wear to the ball. _Not dinner_." She side-glances at Musa.

Flora nods, leaving the room, then reappearing with a _really_ pretty dress. It was a long, baby pink gown; there was a high neckline with a zipper in the back. There were straps, and the front glittered.

Stella almost starts drooling like I do. "That's gorgeous! Everyone, take _Flora's_ example! She knows what's up."

Flora smiles sheepishly. "Thank you."

"What about you, Techna?" Stella turns around to look at Techna, sitting in the chair, not paying any attention; just playing on her phone. "What are you going to wear?"

"Something that appears presentable. Nothing overly extravagant, nothing overly simplistic. An outfit."

Stella blinks a couple times. "Yeah, I don't know what that's supposed to mean." She begins to leave the room. "I'll just see what you have."

Suddenly, a triangular boomerang nearly hits Stella's face, causing her to squeal in fear and turn back around.

"Enter my quarters," Techna says, catching her boomerang in-between her middle and index fingers on her left hand. _Left handed! Wow,_ "and I shall slash you."

Stella slowly backs up. "Alright... Good to know..."

"What about _you_ , Stella?" Musa asks, raising an eyebrow. "You're interrogating _us_ while _you_ haven't told us what you're going to wear."

"Yeah. We're all _dying_ to know," I add.

Stella claps happily. "I'm so glad you asked!" She slowly carries a dress from her walk-in closet and drops it onto her bed so we can all see, and _boy, did she go all out_!

The dress was large, with outstretched hips _with a corset_. The entire gown was glitter and gold, flowing down onto the ground. It was no _prom dress_ ; it was fit for a queen!

"You're wearing _that_ for the dance?" I ask, wiping my drool off before anyone said anything. "That's _beautiful_!"

"Yeah!" Stella cries. "I want to make a good impression on the boys there! This gown'll do the trick. I'll probably add some glitter and put on some dark makeup as well."

"You look like you're going to a wedding!" Musa cries.

"Well, if everything goes well with Sky and I, I'll reuse the dress." Stella smiles at us. She suddenly looks at me. "What about you, _Bloooom_? I wanna know what Earth dresses look like!"

I cringe. My dresses _suck_. I look like a homeless woman compared to them!

"Uh..." I think for a moment. Leaving the room, I go into my own and rummage around my closet. I find the dress I used for last year's winter dance; a simple, knee-length, black dress with thin straps. I walk back into Stella's room, hoping she would _sorta_ accept it, but the minute I show it to her, she faints onto Techna's lap, who simply pushes her off.

" _Whawhawhawha -_ what the _hell is that_?"

"My..." I look at it sheepishly, "old dress from a dance I went to?"

"That...is the most _boring_ thing I have _ever_ seen!"

"It's not that bad, Stella," Musa says. "She's going simple, _unlike you_."

Stella ignores her. "You've _got_ to have something different!"

I shrug. "I'm not a princess, nor rich. This was the cheapest formal outfit I could find."

"Unacceptable! _Unacceptable_! We're going to the mall _right. Now_."

"Now?" I ask.

"Now?" Musa asks.

"Now?" Flora asks.

"At this moment?" Techna asks.

"Yes, _now_!" Stella cries. "Bloom is _not_ going out there looking broke as f*ck! And I know the perfect place!"

* * *

I feel _so broke_ in this store. There's actual _couture_ outfits in there! _And they're expensive as_ _ **hell**_. But Stella couldn't give less of a sh*t. She goes around, seeing outfits she likes and sees how it looks on me. She judges the dress on how it looks with my natural features ("Ew, the dress doesn't go well with your eyes." "The dress would be _perfect_ if it wasn't for the way it clashes with your hair!") and on the style ("Looks like a prom dress. We _don't_ want that." "But isn't this _like_ prom?" "Shut it, Musa!").

I actually try on some outfits; a yellow one, a pink one, and a blue one. The blue one actually was really pretty; a lacy, elegant, baby blue dress with rhinestones on the waist and above the chest area. It's basically sleeveless, but the material acts as sleeves. There's a slit for my leg close to my thigh as well. But then I look at the price tag...

" _Aah_! That's nearly five hundred thousand dollars!"

"I'll pay for it!" Stella offers, but I shake my head. "No, no, it's fine. We'll find something else."

"We can't find anything else," says Musa. "We only have three more hours before the dance starts."

"Only _three_? I'm gonna have to go fast with my makeup if I wanna be there on time!" Stella cries. "But Bloom, you have to look good! If you go in that _hideous_ black dress, I swear—"

"No," I reply, slightly laughing. "When all else fails, go DIY."

* * *

I used to be in art class during my days as a highschool student on Earth. That and home ec. And I was _pretty_ good at them, if I do say so myself. Mom and I've made a lot of DIY things, like pencil cases and bedsheets; even clothes! and this wasn't too different. The only problem was the price. Stella _tried_ giving me her black card, but Flora and I made her put me on a budget, so now I'm running around Magix, looking for cheap fabric and clothing stores. But I'm prone to getting lost, _so..._

The malls here in Magix are so _weird_! There are conveyor belts all over the place, magical assistants to guide you, and _food delivery to wherever you are_! I think the last part is the most fun. Why hasn't Earth implemented that yet?

After nearly two hours, I'm able to get all the stuff I need, but I'm gonna have to hurry. _Only one hour before it starts_!

After jumping off the bus, running through the gates, into the school, up the stairs, down the dorm hall, and into Flora and I's room, I finally am able to start designing.

I'm kinda going sonic speed, but working under pressure helps me a _lot_. I'm going through, making adjustments to things, sewing on different pieces, but I know I'm not gonna finish in time. As Stella says, "It's better to be fashionably late than too early."

As I'm finishing up the dress (if you're wondering how I'm making this extremely quickly, a little _maaagic_ was involved. Magic is _extremely_ helpful), I try to reach for my pair of scissors, but then realize -

"Um... Where did I put my scissors?"

I rummage around my desk, trying to see if I accidentally misplaced them, but I can't seem to find them anywhere. I turn my head towards Kiko, raising my eyebrows, silently asking him if he had taken it, but he just shrugs and jumps onto the desk, looking around as well.

"Dammit! Of _all_ the times to lose something," I mutter, standing up. I search all around, trying to see if I can find any spare scissors, but unfortunately, fate is just not on my side. I groan, deciding to see if Flora happens to have any on her side.

Don't worry. I _don't_ go snooping through her drawers like a creeper. I just look on surfaces and on her dresser and in small cups to see if she has any, but she doesn't. It feels like I'm on a treasure hunt.

Stella's room doesn't have any scissors I can see (I'm surprised she doesn't). Just makeup kits and hairbrushes.

Musa and Techna's sides of their room contrast each other. While Musa has her stuff lying around everywhere, Techna's extremely neat and tidy. Musa doesn't have any scissors either; just guitar pucks and other musical instruments and whatnot. Neither does Techna, but I learned a valuable lesson about stepping onto her side of the room. Not even lying; I got chased down by lasers trying to get over there. She must _really_ not like people touching her stuff.

I flop face-first onto the couch, exasperated and exhausted from risking my life trying to find _scissors_.

"Maybe they have some in the storage closets," I mumble into the loveseat.

I leave the room, heading down the dorm hall and beginning to search for random closets and whatnot. I can hear music playing from up here, telling me that the party is already in full swing. I'm anxious to join them all, but I can't have fun if I

Can't.

Find.

F*cking.

_**SCISSORS**_!

I end up finding one or two closets, but those are...occupied. Even the Magic Dimension can't escape from coupling in closets.

Also, have I mentioned how bad I am at directions? I once got lost in a grocery store. When I was fourteen. See? Slightly pathetic, and moving into a centuries-old castle for a school _diiiidn't_ really help me all that much. We have a map to the school, but it's disabled after nine o'clock, even on special occasions like today, sooooooo

I'm lost!

I walk around the place like a lost child looking for their mother, hoping that I'd find someone _other_ than preoccupied couples. It seems hopeless until I find a weird looking oak door on the side of the hallway. It's positioned a bit weird, so it gives me a sketchy feel, but I don't care. I just need to find scissors.

I open the door and suddenly, the smell of decaying bodies fill my nose, causing me to gag. The hell is in this room? When I look again, I can barely see anything, and not because the smell was so bad it nearly blinded me. It's completely pitch dark, and distant water droplets can be heard. Was this a tunnel? It seemed like a tunnel.

I don't care. I just need scissors. Maybe it's just a _reeeeally_ sketchy storage closet.

I walk down the tiny, stone steps and begin walking through, trying to see if I could find anything that would be useful to me, but unfortunately, the farther I walk, it gets colder and colder, giving me the impression that _yep_ , this was a tunnel. How did I get so lost I found my way into a tunnel? I can barely see!

" _Why does it smell like dead bodies in here_?"

" _Maybe it's because you put on the wrong perfume today_."

" _Har har, very funny_."

What in this world...? Is this a haunted tunnel, because I'm hearing voices. I assume they have ghosts in the Magic Dimension. But the voices begin to grow closer, and I start to feel like I've heard these voices before...

_Aw, is_ _poor, little fairy in pain_?

_You're gonna get what you deserved, little fairy_.

_There will be no later._

Oh, no. Ohnononononono! All I wanted was to find a pair of scissors!

I quickly run back through the tunnel, up the steps again, and into the corridor as the voices grow even closer. I wait in my hiding place for a bit, trying to see if they were who I thought they were.

And they are.

Icy, Darcy, and Stormy—or the _Trix_ —walk straight out of the tunnel and into the corridor. I take an extra precaution and hold my breath just in case.

"We're here," says Stormy. "Now, let's find the stupid gift box and get the hell out of here. The smell of fairy is making me nauseous."

"Stop being so dramatic," Darcy argues. "If the spell works, the fairies' have a night they'll _never_ forget."

"Don't forget why we're _really_ here," Icy cuts in. "This is just a cover-up. We need to find Stella's ring, and with the fairies preoccupied, it'll be easier to track it down."

"You're right..." Stormy crosses her arms. "But we still get to curse fairies right?"

Darcy smacks her in the back of her head. "Yes, you dumb*ss. Now, let's go."

_Oh, crap_. They're _reeeally_ adamant on getting Stella's powers. But what curse are they talking about? They begin walking away, and I start to follow them, prepared to run at any moment.

I feel like I'm in a horror movie or game where the protagonist has to stay _extremely_ quiet or else whatever-it-is is going to murder them. But in those movies, it's not real, and in a video game, you can always respawn. In this, I can't do any of that.

If I get caught, it's game over.

They continue to cut corners and take different turns using a magical tracker. I'm able to stay very quiet; I expected them to have caught me by now, but I'm thankful they haven't.

Finally, they come to a golden trunk ( _shiiiiiny_ ) with the supposed seal of Red Fountain on it. I have no idea what it is; is it some magical artifact or something?

"Here we are." Icy steps forward. She easily opens the box, revealing small eggs that look to be enough for nearly everyone at Alfea. She picks up a random one and hands it to Stormy. "Open it."

Stormy does as told, and suddenly, Positive Energy flows through the air, feeling warm and welcome in my veins, and it takes a lot for me to sigh in satisfaction. We had a brief lesson on the effects of Positive Energy; it makes fairies stronger and more powerful and energized. But Stormy looks at it with disgust and closes it back. "Disgusting. It's Positive Energy."

"Of course they would give the fairies something like this," Darcy says, taking the egg from Stormy. "They're _noble_ and _chivalrous_."

"Well, it won't stay like that for long." Icy snaps her figures. "Convergence."

Darcy and Stormy stand next to her and join hands. They close their eyes and begin muttering an incantation, causing everything to grow very cold and draining. Everything has an opposite, and Positive Energy is no exception. The opposite is Negative Energy, and it's all I can feel. My head begins to grow fuzzy, and I feel quite drained. It only lasts a couple moments, but it feels like I've been soaking in NE for half an hour.

"There we go." Icy drops her arms. "The deed is done."

"What do we do now?" Stormy asks.

"Now... We wait."

* * *

Since the party is in full swing, I easily get thrown around and lost. People are dancing everywhere, drinking, talking. It's nearly impossible to find anyone I know here. I constantly have to say, "excuse me," and "pardon me". I nearly bump into a couple teachers.

Yeesh.

As I'm attempting to slink past dancers and teachers, I accidentally bump my face into somebody's back. My nose stings a little as I straighten up, starting to mumble a dry apologize when a voice stops me.

"Bloom!"

I look up. Brandon's standing there, a drink in his hand, looking as gorgeous as ever. He's wearing a velvet suit with a white undershirt, while I'm dressed as if I haven't gone anywhere. "Bloom," he repeats. "I was wondering where you were. Stella told me you were still getting ready."

"Yeah, I am," I say. I want to spend more time talking to him, but it's basically an emergency.

Brandon looks me up and down. "And I see you're still...getting dressed?"

"Yeah, I know. I'm fixing up my dress right now." I'm talking extremely fast, and he seems to notice. "Hey, do you know where Stella is?"

"Yeah," Brandon explains. "I saw her down that way with Sky -"

"Okay, thanks!" I run past him, swallowing my embarrassment.

I find Stella in her basically wedding gown, wearing dark makeup and hair styled royally. "Bloom! There you are! I see you followed my advice on being fashionably late..." She trails off, looking at my outfit. "I see you're going for the _really_ late route. Bloom." She clears her throat. "Are you aware you still look broke?"

"I am," I huff, starting to get annoying. "Listen, there's something you need to know. The Trix were here."

"What?" Stella suddenly becomes very serious. "What happened?"

"I dunno, but they did something with this trunk, and they filled it with Negative Energy, and - and - _God_! I'm gonna have to show you!"

Stella pulls out her phone, texting Prince Sky that she would be a bit late coming back, then going to text the group chat, telling them - including me - to meet us in the middle of the courtyard. We walk over there underneath the large stage that Musa and a couple other people would be performing on later, and Musa shows up first. "Yo - what's this all about?"

"I need to talk to all of you," I explain, looking around to see if anyone else is coming over.

"Okay, but make it quick," says Musa. "I go on stage in about an hour, and I am _dying_ to start singing!"

Flora and Techna are the last to show up, the first quick to begin apologizing. "So sorry we're late! I tried to get here earlier but it was hard to get Techna to come over here."

"I had the assumption that Stella was going to try to force us into one of her -" She forms her fingers into quotes "- 'fashion emergencies', so I did not bother, but Flora seemed adamant on forcing me to join, so I plunged."

"What were you doing that was _so_ much more important?" Musa asks, rolling her eyes.

"If you must know," Techna replies, squinting, "I was participating in conversation with one of the apprentices at Red Fountain."

"A boy, basically?" Stella asks.

Techna groans. "Affirmative... A _boy_."

Stella takes Techna's hands and stares at her with gratitude. "See! Don't you see how _good_ it is when you leave your shell and enter the real world?"

"I did not exit my so-called _shell_. Timothy pursued me, and we happened to share the same interests."

"Still proud!" Stella beams.

"The reason I asked all of you to come here was because the Trix are planning something, and it also involves Stella's ring. Follow me."

They all exchange glances and follow me into the school. We walk down the long hallways, me taking the lead, despite not knowing where the hell I'm going, but fortunately, the Lord was on my side, and we were able to find the trunk the Trix cursed.

"Oh!" Stella cries, seeing it. "The gifts! I remember one of the upperclassmen talking about them."

"And you say the Trix cursed them?" Flora asks.

"Yep. Saw it with my own eyes," I say.

Musa steps forward and opens the trunk, revealing the eggs. She picks one up, and before anyone can stop her, opens it, letting all of the NE sweep through us. All of us feel it, heads pounding and energy seeping away. I _hate_ NE! It takes _forever_ for it to go away!

"Yeah, now I see why you called us," Musa said once the NE had passed. "Are all of them like that?"

Techna takes out one of her gadgets (looks to be an identifier) and scans all of the eggs. When she looks at the screen, she clicks her tongue. "Affirmative. Dangerous levels of Negative Energy. If they are released at the very same time, it could be catastrophic."

"Then, what do we do?" I ask. "We can't just leave them here for people to open."

Flora thought for a moment, then suddenly thought of something. "Convergence!"

"Uh, Flora?" Musa asks. "We don't learn Convergence magic until second year. None of us know how to do it."

"Not the advanced kind!" Flora explains. "In Palladium's class, I decided to go a bit further with my studies and start with the _itty-bitty_ lessons on Convergence. There was one in there which taught us how to reverse spells using Convergence. We could try it!"

"Well, we can't afford to shoot down her plan, I guess." I shrug. "What do we have to do?"

"First, we join hands." She takes my hand and Stella's hand, instructing the others to do the same. "Then, we surround the trunk." We position ourselves to where the trunk is directly in the middle of all of us. "Finally, we recite the same thing at the same time. _Quod cum factum esset, et rursus fieri._ "

"Latin? Isn't that witch stuff?" Stella asks, giving Flora a suspicious look.

"The Latin language does not just limit itself towards witches," Techna explains. "Many diverse magic types use spells like this. Fairies are no exception."

Stella shrugs and goes back to concentrating. "What's the incantation again?"

" _Quod cum factum esset, et rursus fieri_ ," Flora repeats. "Now, close your eyes and repeat it."

We all begin to repeat the phrase, a couple of us tumbling over the pronunciation. After a couple tries, a familiar tingling feeling arrives, telling me that something's happening. The trunk begins to rattle a bit, then suddenly stops. Flora drops Stella's hand and walks over to it. Opening it, she pulls out another egg and hands it to Techna. "Did it work?"

Techna pulls out her gadget once again, beginning to scan it. After a bit, she looks back up at us. "Affirmative."

We all breathe a sigh of relief. We _don't_ have to deal with the funky feeling of NE.

"But didn't you say the Trix are after Stella's ring, Bloom?" Musa asks.

"Yeah. Probably the NE thing was to distract us all."

Flora smiles, picking up another egg. "Well, I know _exactly_ what we'll do, then."

Musa eyes Flora cheekily. "I see that look on your face. You're thinking what _I'm_ thinking, aren't you, Flo?"

Flora giggles. "Well, maybe a more _humane_ version, but _yes_ ; I _am_ thinking what you're thinking."

"Huh?" I ask stupidly. "What's going on? What's happening?"

"Oh, nothing." Flora waves a dismissive hand. "We'll tell you later. Until then, you should get dressed. You don't wanna miss the rest of the dance!"

"And my awesome performance!"

* * *

Afterwards, I'm back in my room (Stella lent me some scissors), trying to fix up my dress. It's going really well, and I honestly think I might have to save a picture of myself wearing it! Stella might even like it!

Key word: might.

Right as I'm placing the finishing touches on it, I hear a crash coming from Stella's room. I put down my scissors and walk out of the room, looking around. I assume it's Stella; who else would be in her room?

"Stella?" I call. "Are you there?" But there's no answer. I frown, beginning to step into her room. On the floor, her jewelry box had toppled over, spilling _shiny_ rings, bracelets, and earrings onto the floor. One particular case stands out from all the rest... _Because it's floating_.

_Stella's ring case_!

"What in the...?" I mumble, seeing it begin to fly past me. "Hey! Come back!" I begin to chase it down, running out of the whole dorm room, but the case is too fast for me. _Where is it going_? I take a couple turns, a couple shortcuts, nearly losing it in the process. Suddenly, the case and I are outside the school, close by Gloomy Wood Forest. "Why would it be going all the way out here...?" I wonder aloud. I notice the case begins to slow down, so I channel all my PE training and...

I lunge forward and grab it with my own two hands.

"Gotcha!" I cry. "Now, where are you going?"

" _Of course she just_ _ **had**_ _to be watching. Fairies are nosy, little sh*ts._ "

" _This time, no one's here to rescue her_."

" _We'll finally teach this fairy a lesson_."

I look behind me, and the same witches I saw a week ago are there, looking angry and malicious. Ah, dammit!

"Why you guys?" I ask annoyed.

" _How dare you_?" Stormy hisses. "You're the one meddling in affairs that don't concern you, and you have the _audacity_ to complain about us!"

"Stormy, don't get your panties into a twist," Icy says. "We'll be rid of her before the night's over."

"I don't think so!" I cry. "This time, I know how you guys work. I'm gonna put up a fight this time."

"A real fight, huh?" Icy asks. "Did Little Fairy learn some new spells?"

Yes.

"Doesn't matter. I'm not gonna let you take Stella's ring!" Right as I say that, Stormy shoots lightning close to my feet, causing me to jump out of the way. Guess we're fighting now.

In the Alfea curriculum, they have a class for combat, but I can't take it, because... _Well, does it look like I have my wings yet_? So... I'm in trouble. And I'm kinda crap at magic anyway. Couch Goodman, don't fail me now!

They begin shooting various spells at me, attempting to hit me, but I run around, dodging as many as I can. One of Icy's crystals hit me square in the arm, and I wince in pain, blood cascading downwards. Because I'm distracted from the pain in my arm, both Stormy and Darcy are able to attack, attacking me in the face with a combined spell.

I'm shot basically into Gloomy Wood, being scratched by various branches. I attempt to get back up, but ice begins to trap my legs in place. I struggle, trying to figure out ways to break the ice, but Icy, Darcy, and Stormy come strutting in, as if they're in a modelling agency.

"Pity." Darcy laughs. "I was hoping we'd have a real fight."

"No matter." Icy snaps her finger towards Stormy. "We'll finally be rid of this fairy once and for all."

Stormy kneels down, causing the ground beneath me to shake violently. _Eeeeeeeaaaaarrrrrttttthhhhhhqqqqquuuuuuuuaaaaaakkkkkkeeeee_. The ground begins to split in half, revealing the darkness and dirt below. The ice trapping me is broken, but as I try to get back up, a hand pushes me forward, right down into the ground.

I'm screaming. _Ohgodohgod_ _ **ohgod**_! I'm gonna die! I'm gonna _f*cking_ die! _Helphelphelp!_ The Trix grows smaller and smaller as I fall, and a malicious smile appears on Icy's face; she waves goodbye to me.

How long will I fall for? Is there a bottom? I dunno; I've never researched if bottomless pits existed!

I'm falling! _I'm still falling_! I close my eyes shut, hoping that I would just hit the ground. _Please don't be bottomless._ _ **Please don't be bottomless**_ _._

Suddenly, something seems to happen to my body. I'm all tingly and strength courses through me. I open my eyes, seeing what happened, and... I don't remember changing clothes. I'm now wearing a sparkly light blue top decorated with a gold jewel at the center of my chest, a matching light blue miniskirt and light blue ankle boots. I also have light blue gloves around my arms from elbow to wrist and am wearing a small golden tiara with rounded points at the top of her head. On my back are wings ( _wings_?) with cyan with teal tips.

Did I just...? _Did I just transform_?

Maybe everything's not over.

I close my eyes, trying to get my wings to work, and suddenly, I stop falling. I almost get whiplash from how fast I'm pulled back. My small wings are fluttering rapidly. I almost started crying. _I'm truly a...a fairy_. I never thought I'd be one... But now... I truly am.

I can't start crying or being too in awe about it. I have to stop the Trix from stealing the ring. I turn my focus up, controlling my wings to ascend. This is _awesome_! I never knew how fun it would be to fly. Adrenaline and excitement shoots through me. _I'm pumped for this_.

I finally make it out of the opening, watching the Trix slowly leave with the ring. " _Hey_!" I cry. They turn around, and Stormy's face turns horrifying. If looks could kill, I would be deader than dead. " _Forget about me_?"

"What the -" Darcy hisses, but Icy doesn't seem so troubled. "Looks like Little Fairy grew some wings? Should we be beat into oblivion, now?"

I glare at them from my place in the sky, but in reality, I'm still in trouble. Remember when I talked about combat training? I _just_ earned my wings; how am I supposed to know any spells?

I just hope they'll leave.

Darcy grumbles something and directs her hands forward, illusion spells coming towards me. I jerkily move out of the way, not unnoticed by the Trix.

"I see Little Fairy's getting used to her wings. Be a shame if we had to clip them."

"Try and catch me!" I cry, flying around, trying to swoop in and grab the ring.

"This is annoying." Icy rolls her eyes.

"It's like dealing with an annoying gnat. Don't worry; I'll handle this." Stormy shoots another lightning spell at me, hitting me right in the forehead, throwing me into Gloomy Wood and crashing into a tree.

My consciousness is fading. I've de-transformed as well. I have no strength to get back up, but before I can even attempt to, it suddenly gets extremely cold, but I don't know _how_ could, 'cause I pass out before Icy can even finish.

* * *

" _Bloom_ , _you alive_?"

" _Of course she does. My sensors detect_ _ **five**_ _heat signatures, not four_."

" _Wow, you have sensors? Like a robot_?"

" _It would be greatly appreciated if you did not compare me to one_."

" _I mean, it's kinda hard to. You're pretty robotic, Tech_."

" _Refrain from referring to me as one_."

"Girls!" the last voice comes in, nice and soft, as I come back to my senses. "Bloom's waking up."

I blink a couple times, trying to clear up the spots in my vision.

"Are you okay?" Flora asks, hugging me. "We heard so much commotion!"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Flora helps me stand up. "The Trix were here. I was able to transform." But I'm not as happy about it, and Flora quickly notices.

"Sweetie, what's wrong? You _transformed_! You should be excited!"

"Yeah!" Stella adds. "Transforming is _awesome_! But once you've gotten used to it, you're already itching to get to Enchantix."

"Yeah, but... They took Stella's ring. I wasn't able to stop them."

"Huh? You mean this ring?" And Stella takes off her ring, showing it to me. It's the same one that she uses to call upon her scepter, shiny and golden. What in this world...?

"What? B-but how? I saw the Trix take it!" I cry flabbergasted.

"Heh heh... That's what Flora and I were scheming back with the trunk," Musa explains. "We replaced the ring with something else."

"Else? What else?"

Flora giggles. "Let's just say the next time we see the Trix, they'll have a little friend with them."

Either I'm still dazed or I'm dumb as f*ck.

"Now, _come on_! We can talk about the details of your little adventure _later_! You need to go _change_ , girl!" Stella grabs my arm and drags me back inside.

* * *

I'm extremely late to this thing, but it's better than not showing up at all.

I'm wearing a pretty, baby blue dress with a lace back and criss-crossed bands. White decoration covers the bottom of the top and the bottom. White flats are on my feet, and Flora lent me a single, white flower to place in my hair. I looked pretty good, if I do say so myself.

I smile at myself, taking a picture and sending it to my parents who are probably up already (like I said - the times are weird here).

Nothing about the party had changed, but one person was waiting for me. "Bloom! You changed!"

"Yeah," I say, smiling at Brandon. "I'm not _too_ late, am I?"

"A little bit, yeah." Brandon laughs sheepishly. "But you're just in time." Just as he says that, the lights seem to dim. Musa shows up on the stage. "Musa's about to sing."

"Y'all ready to rock?" she yells. Enthusiastic cheers ring through the crowd. The guy close to us scoffs. It's Riven. The band behind her begins their music, a strong rock song. Musa grips the microphone and begins to sing.

_Woke up this morning  
I am so lazy, I'm late again_

_Put on my makeup  
The sun is shining, I feel great  
I rish down the street, my friends are waiting there for me_

Brandon and I dance along, feeling really hyped. It's amazing, seeing Musa's abilities. She begins to sing the chorus, in which the backup singers join in as well.

_You're the one_!  
" _Who can do the incredible things you do_ ," the backup singers add.  
 _You're the best_!  
( _And baby, you deserve the gifts you have. Can't you see_?)  
 _You are strong_!  
( _You fight against your demons everyday_!)  
 _You're a star_!  
( _Remember where you come from and who you are, come join us_!)

This song is _awesome_! I wonder if iTunes works here...

The song goes on for a bit longer until it reaches the outro.

_You are a fairy, believe it_!  
( _You gotta believe it, 'cause you're the one_ )  
( _Fairy_ )  
 _(Fairy_ )

And the sound ends with an awesome guitar sequence, and the entire area erupts into cheer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the next one is my least favorite one i've written.


	4. What Are You Doing in My Swamp?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bloom exposes the girls to Earthen culture.
> 
> Oh, and their field trip gets disrupted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hate this chapter.

**C** ombat classes started the minute I reported that I gained my wings. It reminded me of PE, except we had to learn to fly, fight, use spells which complemented our elements, etc. It wasn't actually that bad; well, except for the fact I'm still kinda doodoo at magic, but I'm surprisingly getting better. I was finally able to conquer the hair transformation spell ( _thank the Great Dragon_! See? Thank the Great Dragon? It's a saying everyone in the Magic Dimension says. Since I'm kinda part of it, now, I guess I'm obliged to say it, too), and I learned two simple combat spells: fireball and _Ring of Fire_. One is for offense, one's for defense. Fun, right? But according to Griselda, our combat trainer, we'll soon begin duels, and I'm _kinda_ not pumped.

Who would you vote on? a royal princess with years of experience in the magic fields or some girl who found out she was a fairy a month ago?

But anyway, close to the beginning of October, we had our first physical assignment in herbology! All our assignments have been strictly in the classroom, but now, we get to see the great outdoors! And when I mean the great outdoors, I mean a smelly, old swamp.

We had to sign a waiver saying that if anything happened to us, we would promise not to attempt to sue the school, which makes me very nervous. If you signed it, you would automatically be allowed to join the class on the field trip and even get some awesome hiker gear! We weren't told where we were going until we actually arrived, and it was kinda disappointing.

_Black Mud Swamp_ , says the sign as the bus passed it.

"Black Mud Swamp?" I ask, turning my head back to the other Winx. "What? Is that like - the swamp Shrek lives in?"

All I got was blank looks.

"Oh, right." I slouch a bit. "Shrek's one of my favorite movies of all time, and the main character, _Shrek_ \- an ogre - lives in a swamp. He doesn't want people in it, though."

"Oh, wow," Musa says. "Never heard of a movie with an _ogre_ as the main character. Was he ugly?"

"Well - _yeah_ ," I explain. "But he makes it up for humor."

"Is there a way we could watch it?" Flora looks at me with wonder in her eyes, then looks at Techna. "Is there a way we can watch Earthen movies?"

"Affirmative, but -" But then, Techna's interrupted.

"Yay!" Stella claps her hands. "Then, it's settled. We'll watch Shronk -" " _Shrek_." "- _Shrek_ tomorrow!"

"But wait!" Techna cries. "It might take me quite a while! It involves connecting the indiscernible webs between Earthen transmissions and Magic Dimension transmissions!"

Stella places a hand on Techna's shoulder. "But you're able to do it, correct?"

"A-affirmative, but -"

"Then, it'll be fine."

Techna's expression becomes unreadable once more. "From my observations, despite only being present for a month, I have come to the conclusion that none of you simply listen to me."

Stella smiles. "We don't."

We park and get off quickly, immediately being hit with the smell of the outdoors. The grass is green and wet, and all around us are droopy trees, and dirty water with leaves littering it. To Stella and some select other girls, this was basically Hell. For Musa, Techna, some of the others, and I, this was just a field trip. But for Flora, this was _Heaven_.

"It's beautiful out here!" Flora cries, twirling around. "There's so much plant life here. This is pure nature! The trees are singing! Can't you hear it, Musa?"

"Yeah, along with some animals out here." She coughs into her fist. "It seems like it's mating season."

"Settle down, students!" Palladium's sheepish voice calls. He silently counts, conjuring a clipboard and pen and scribbling quickly. "Ahem -" And then, he coughs, because a fly just flew into his throat. After hacking a bit and being laughed at by us students, he continues. "Sorry about that - anyway! Welcome, students, to Black Mud Swamp! Now, can anyone tell me the history behind this place?"

"That it's basically hell on Magix?" a girl asks. We all laugh at that. _What_? _It's funny_!

"U-u-uh, _no_! Y-you might perceive this place that way, but I assure you, there are worse places I could've taken you." Palladium smiles a bit mischievous. "Anyone else? With _actual_ answers?"

Flora pipes up, "It's the largest swamp on this side of the Interworld planets, home to hundreds of different marine and land lives."

"Good job, Flora," Palladium congratulates. "You're spot-on."

"And," Techna adds, "a bit of extra information here, the main place where the Great Adolescent Massacre happened - err, I understand I made that title a bit more complicated than it is - the _Great_ _ **Child**_ _Massacre_."

Palladium shrinks. "Err - yes, that, too."

"Wait! People have _died_ here?" Stella asks, beginning to panic.

"Explains why they made us sign that waiver." Musa laughs.

" _Please_ settle down!" Palladium sounds a bit desperate, now. "Ugh! _Yes_ , people _have_ died here, but we're not here to discover their _lost remains_. We're here to have a lesson. Now, can I _please_ explain it?" None of us respond, so he takes that as a sign he can continue. "Anyway, we're _here_ because I want to see your survival skills. You're being taught how to use magic with your fairy forms, _but_ it's important for you to learn how to navigate _without_ the use of both your fairy forms _and_ magic itself." He clears his throat. "Say - hypothetically - you're on a trip with a group of friends, lovers, whatever. Suddenly, your aircraft malfunctions as it's flying over a swamp. You're travelling down, down, _down_. With a harsh _crash_ , the aircraft hits the ground, and you lose consciousness. When you wake up, you're lying in the middle of the swamp, bruised, but more-or-less okay. You look around and notice that your party is gone. You call out for them, but there's no answer. You attempt to transform, but nothing happens. Then, you try to use a basic spell." He shakes his head. "Nothing. You're now wingless and powerless. But you can't dwell on that. You have to find your family, friends, lovers, and rescue them. And this is where your assignment comes in. You and your roommates must wander the swamp and find the dummies I have placed all around the swamp. You need to find at least four of them. And then, you must create either an offensive or defensive potion using the plants and other creatures living here. You'll have the entire day to do so, up until one in the morning, that is. That's when the park closes. Any questions before I let you go?"

"Are we allowed to do some extra research if we finish early?" Flora asks enthusiastically. From the odd looks from some of the other girls, she adds, "Well, I find this swamp interesting; I would like to gain some firsthand knowledge."

Palladium smiles, probably at the fact that this was the first serious question anyone had asked all day. "Yes, you may. It's good to gain some extra research. I might give you a pop quiz on your experiences."

People groan at that.

"Thanks, Flora," Stella hisses.

Flora glares at her.

"Anymore questions?" When no other hands go up, he continues. "Alright. You may leave. Oh - wait!" He turns back to us. "You are _not allowed_ to use magic. It's the whole point of this exercise. No spells, no transforming. _Nothing_. Only the potion making. And if you thought you could do it anyway without me knowing -" he laughs "- you're _very_ mistaken. Along with not allowing your insurance company to sue me, does anyone know what _else_ I am entitled to do?"

Techna pipes up first, the _only_ person to have gone through all five pages of that waiver. "You are also entitled to being able to track and shadow us."

Palladium nods. "Correct. I'll be able to see everything you're doing. So if you use magic, I'll be able to catch you, and you'll be automatically disqualified. Have I mentioned this is fifty percent of your grade?"

People start to get really tense. Hope we don't f*ck this up.

"That's creepy," one of the girls whispered to the other.

"Creepy, yes," Palladium replies, having heard her. "Unnecessary? No." He sighs. "Well, that's enough talk. Good luck!" And he claps his hands together and disappears.

The groups begin to walk around. I turn to my own. "Well, I guess the first thing we could do is appoint a leader. Any volunteers?"

Stella steps forward. "I will lead this assignment. With _me_ , we're sure to find victor _HEY_!" She's cut off when Musa elbows her in the rib.

"Hell no, we're not listening to you!" she cries. "You're probably gonna get us fed to swamp monsters!"

"Contrary to popular belief," Techna chimes in, programming something on her techno-gadget, "there are no swamp monsters present."

"Well, if there _were_ \- " Musa glares at Stella "- we'd die so fast..."

Stella sticks her tongue out as Flora sheepishly comes forward. "I think it would be good for the group if _I_ took the lead. I-I'm not saying any of you aren't as qualified, b-but," she adds, "since this is a _swamp_ full of _nature_ , and my power's _nature_ , I think I should lead."

"Flora's right," I say. "She knows how this swamp works better than any of us do. I only know what swamps are because of Shrek, and even then, I'm still a little clueless."

Flora places a hand on my shoulder. "Thank you, Bloom."

" _Ugh_! Why are you guys so opposed to me being the leader? I'm capable!" Stella cries, flopping down on a rock.

"Do not take offense to this, Stella," Techna says, "but you are unreliable."

Musa nods her head. "What she said."

Stella sticks her tongue out of them.

I walk over to Techna. "Speaking of reliability, is there any way we can track the stuff we need to find?"

"Affirmative," Techna says. "'Tis what I am finishing right at this very moment. I have programmed this tracker to tell us where four or more fictional humanoids are." She looks a bit mischievous. "Palladium never prohibited techno-gadgets..." She suddenly goes back to neutrality. _Damn._ I'm surprised she didn't get whiplash from how fast she changed emotions. She hits the back of the tracker, then raises it in the air. "Alright. The first humanoid is very close by, but it requires us to cross this body of water here." She points downwards to where the area we're standing on separates from the area across from us.

Stella groans. " _So glad_ we were given uniforms for this." She steps in, cringing as she does so.

"Come on, Stella!" I yell. "You can do it!"

"It smells _awful_!"

"Ignore the smell and try to concentrate on how beautiful it is!" Flora cries.

"Hard to do that..." Stella keeps her head high up as she crosses, suddenly turning to us. " _Oi_! You guys have to get in, too!"

"Don't mind if I do." Musa practically jumps in, immediately covered in algae and other stuff in the water. She gags. "Stella was right. This smells _atrocious_!"

Flora, Techna, and I walk in, too, suddenly being hit by the rotten smell of it all. Flora's the only one unfazed, happily walking through it. "It feels nice," she sighs.

Techna holds her gadget above her head to keep it from falling in the nasty swamp water. "Hm... Well, according to my tracker, the first humanoid is right..." She speedwalks past Stella and stands at the end of the swamp. Right next to this weird, blue, bubble thing. "Here..." She looks at it, then hits it a couple times.

Flora's eyes widen. "Uh, Techna? I don't think it would be a smart idea to attack that thing!"

But Techna wasn't paying any attention. She mutters something under her breath, then takes out a small _whatever-it-is_. It looks like one of those microchip things you see in computers. She places three around it and waits patiently.

"Wait! _Techna, that's not a good_ -"

But it's too late. The bubble _explodes_ , shooting liquids and other stuff everywhere. Stella shrieks as it begins to cover her, and the rest of us duck to avoid the spray.

After a bit, we look back up again. I have a couple splotches on my arms and face, but other than that, I'm barely covered. Musa has a lot of it covering her hiking gear, and Flora has a bit on her arms.

"That...was awesome," Musa breaths.

Stella has a good bit all over her. She's practically covered head-to-toe in it, and she slowly becomes livid.

Techna got the worst of it, though. It's all over her clothes, all over her face, all over her hair, but she's unfazed. "Putrid smelling," she mumbles, grabbing the dummy. "But I have retrieved it." It's one of those really soft dummies with badly drawn faces and no clothes. Techna holds it up by the arm.

Flora buries her face in her palm. "That's a _Percula_ plant! It has a defense mechanism where, if threatened, will release disgusting liquids and gases everywhere! That was what I was trying to tell you!"

"Hm. I do not understand plants."

"I can see that." Flora places her hands on her hips.

Stella's slowly freaking out on the side.

"Stella...?" I ask. "Are you okay...?" I'm scared to get close; she looks like she might tear my face off if I get too close.

"I just got sprayed... _by a f*cking plant_?" she asks dangerously.

"Percula, as Flora refers to it as," Techna explains, not looking at her as she gathers up the dummy.

"And _whose fault is this_?" Stella touches some of her hair, feeling the liquid on it. When she sees it, she nearly pops a fuse.

"I think it was Tech's." Musa struggles not to burst out laughing. So do I. Something about this is quite amusing.

" _Do you know_ ," Stella hisses, getting closer to Techna, " _how long it takes for me to get_ _ **ready**_ _in the morning_?" She doesn't give Techna any time to answer, which she was trying to. " _Five! Nearly_ _ **five**_ _hours! But it doesn't matter, hm_? _No, no, no_. _And it's all_ _ **ruined**_! _**Ruined**_ _!_ _ **Ruined**_ _, I say_!"

"My apologies, Stella," Techna apologizes sincerely. "I did not realize it would affect you like this. 'Twas illogical of me."

" _Damn right it was illogical_!" Stella nearly yells.

"But I do not understand why you're so concerned about your appearance," Techna continues. "Are we not to get uncleanly during the duration of this assignment?"

Yep. She touched a nerve. Stella twitches and begins to sprint towards her. " _Come here_!" she cries. "I'm going to strangle the sh*t out of you!"

Techna slowly backs away onto the side of the swamp. "Stella... I sense high levels of hostility!"

Stella ignores her, lunging at her. Techna runs out of the way into the swamp, Stella hot on her trail, yelling curses at her.

Musa and I are _crying_ now at this, and Flora's looking like a disappointed mother.

Maybe this assignment _isn't_ a huge bust.

* * *

After a couple hours of looking, we've found three of the four dummies we need and two items to help us make our defense potion.

And no, Stella did not murder Techna. But just barely.

As we're passing through a really shallow body of water, what sounds like an airplane grows nearer and nearer to us. When we turn our heads, what appears to be a Red Fountain aircraft is flying _wayy_ too low, zooming past us, smoke billowing from somewhere inside.

"Oh, crap!" Musa cries.

"What's going on?" Flora wonders. "Are they okay?"

"I dunno, but I think we might have to postpone our assignment for a bit." I ran forward past them, trying to see what happened. We ran through the forest, trying to see if we could find where they might've crashed. They didn't get very far. The ship crashed in the middle of the swamp, creating a _huge_ dent in the ground. It had completely caught fire, too.

None of us hesitated to try to see who was inside and help them out. Conveniently, the boys (including Brandon. _EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE_ ) Stella and I met back on Earth were inside, breaking windows and throwing themselves out of there. We helped them out as the aircraft continued to burn.

Once we had gotten them all out of there, we didn't hesitate to ask any questions.

"What...the hell just happened?" Stella asks, looking over Sky. "You're okay, right?"

Sky nods, scratching the back of his neck, slightly embarrassed. "I'm fine. We weren't _too_ high up in the air. Just some scratches and bruises."

"Whose bad driving managed to do that?"

"That damn troll's the one to blame," Riven mutters, standing up and wiping the dirt off his uniform.

"A troll?" I ask. "Do you mean -"

"The one from Earth?" Sky finishes. "Yep. Exactly that one."

"And we were trying to bring him to the authorities from instructions from Saladin, but..." Timmy explains. "It kinda got out of hand."

"And now, we have to go find that stupid thing." Riven is obviously annoyed. He points a finger towards Stella and I. "Couldn't you have killed it back on Earth?"

"If we _could_ ," Stella cuts in, "we wouldn't have called you. Isn't rescuing people in need your _job_?"

Riven scoffs.

"How did a troll manage to get on Earth?" Flora asks.

"It's a _really_ long story," Stella answers.

"Well, anyway," Brandon explains. "We were trying to bring it over, like Timmy said, but somehow, it managed to escape _and_ nearly killed us in the process!"

"We're gonna be in _soo_ much trouble with Codatorta..." Sky groans. As if on cue, the aircraft completely explodes, causing us all to run backwards.

"Now how are we gonna get home?" Timmy readjusts his glasses sadly, slouching a bit.

"There's no _we_." Riven raises an eyebrow. " _I'm_ gonna find that sh*tty troll and get home. I dunno what _you're_ gonna do."

I roll my eyes. I noticed the only person who hasn't talked much was Musa, but I quickly figured out why.

She's staring a bit awe-struck at Riven, blushing a bit. It's the only thing she's been doing. Her eyes completely follow him as he moves, and he hasn't noticed much. He turns his head and catches her staring at him, and he simply just _hmphs_.

"Are you not a team?" Techna asks. "I recall hearing the saying, 'There is no _I_ in _team_ ,' though this statement is incorrect. _Me_ is also a synonym for _I_ , and there _is_ a _me_ in team, so that—that statement is incorrect."

Timmy smiles subtly.

"Doesn't feel like it. _I'm_ doing all the work around here!" Riven points his thumb at himself.

"You? Dude, get over yourself—" Brandon glares at him, looking as if he says the wrong thing, he might pop him in the face, but Flora gets between them before any actual damage is done.

"You can save that for later." She crosses her arms. "For now, we need to know what happened to the troll."

"I assume it escaped," I say, looking behind me. Musa joins me, and we both stare. There's a trail of _huge_ footprints travelling deeper and deeper into the forest. Just on a hunch, I think it's the troll.

Obvious sarcasm.

"Now why would you think that? You fairies don't know -" Riven shuts himself off when he sees the footprints.

"And _what_ were you saying about fairies?" Stella raises an eyebrow.

Riven simply rolls his eyes.

"Oh, damn. How far did he go?" Timmy asks, analyzing the footprints.

"Far enough to get away from us," says Sky. "We need to get him back before he gets too far."

"We can help!" I cry enthusiastically. "We're pretty good at spells and trolls and...whatnot. And we're _fairies_!"

"Aren't you on an assignment?" Sky asks.

"W-well, _yeah_. But we don't need a troll disrupting us."

"More like _you'll_ be disrupting the troll." Riven places his hands on his hips. "Listen, _fairies_. Our job as Specialists is to protect little girls like you. So sit back and relax."

"Hey!" Musa finally pipes up. "Who you calling _little girls_? I'll beat your *ss right here and now!"

"Musa, _language_ ," Flora corrects sternly. "And we _do_ have a mission, but we're nearly done."

"I think we can handle it. We don't want to disrupt your mission," Brandon assures us.

"But you won't be! We'll be helping!" I say.

"Listen to Squire Boy." Riven crosses his arms.

I roll my eyes. " _Fine_."

"You know, if a troll ends up eating you all for dinner, it won't be our fault~" Stella hums.

We don't look back. We part and go our separate ways.

* * *

As we continue to look, I can't help but think of the Specialists. Are they okay? Has anyone caught the troll, yet? What's going on with them?

But some of the others were thinking about the Specialists for different reasons. "That Riven is a massive d*ck!" Musa cries, kicking a rock. "I hope he catches the troll first and gets his face _impounded_." As she says that, she slams her fist into her hand.

"Musa, language," Flora chimes in. "And yes, he was rude, but maybe we caught him on the wrong day."

"Really?" I ask. "'Cause he was like that on Earth, too. I guess he's always in a bad mood."

"Or maybe he just has a heavy period," Stella jokes. "I know when _I'm_ caught on particular heavier days, I'm a major b*tch."

"Males do not menstruate, Stella," Techna corrects.

Stella rolls her eyes. "I'm _aware_. And, Musa, I don't know _you're_ insulting Riven. You were giving him bedroom eyes."

Musa turns pink. "Yeah! 'Cause I thought he was cute! That's all. Then, I saw his 'tude and completely dropped him."

"I mean, he _is_ nice to look at somewhat." I hop over a branch, catching sight of one of the rosea plants we need to complete the potion, and hand it over to Flora.

"Hey, don't cheat on Brandon, Bloom!" Stella laughs. "I know you like him, too!"

I go red. "Well..."

Stella looks over at Techna. "Oi, Tech. I see you trying to escape the conversation. Come over here! Got anything to say about somebody...? Or—I dunno. _Timmy_?"

Techna practically glares at Stella. "I am not escaping the conversation to appear bashful. Conversing regarding romance is not something I find interesting. After all, are we not supposed to be working on the assignment?"

"I mean, we're almost done." I peak my head into Flora's basket. "We only have a couple more roseas left to grab, and we already have some unicornium."

"Well, despite our fortunate way of being nearly finished, I would not like to engage in the conversation."

"Come on! This is normal talk! We're all girls here! This is normal girl talk!"

Stella's been trying to get Techna to open up for the longest time, but Techna just refuses to cooperate. In my opinion, it's a bit annoying—her bluntness and her closed-off personality. I thought we were all friends here. Though, I don't want to say anything; some people just might not be used to the idea of friends.

Techna doesn't respond. She simply takes more Rosea plants and places it in Flora's basket.

Stella stands there for a moment, thinking. "You know, Tech? You're a bit too technical."

At that remark, said girl stops, slowly turns around, and says unemotionally, "What?"

"You're too technical!"

Techna blinks. "I... I do not believe you are using the word correctly..."

"I don't care about that! You're _tooooooo_ technical. You're like a—a—a robot!"

If looks could kill, Stella would be dismembered, burned, and her ashes spread into a ditch. Techna glares at her so intensely that Flora jumps in before anything bad can happen. "Now, girls," she says. "We all need to calm down. It was just a misunderstanding. Now, can we keep going?"

Stella weakly shrugs, and we continue on our way in total silence. We only need about three more roseas, and then we're done.

Randomly, when we're walking through a weird area with hanging, green vines, Stella trips over a branch and falls to the ground with a loud shriek.

Flora whips her head over and harshly shushes her. " _Stella_!" she whispers. " _Hush_!"

"What the hell, Flora?" Stella asks, picking herself up. "I just _fell_! What kind of person is _quiet_ when they fall?"

"Yo, Stel? Flora's right. I think you need to _zip it_ ," Musa hisses.

I look around and notice how the vines have begun moving, I try to motion for Stella to keep quiet as well, sensing something weird about this whole thing. " _Stella, I_ _ **think**_ _they're trying to tell you something_?"

"Nuh uh! See what would've happened if I was being murdered? Would you want me to be quiet, then? Telling me to _be quiet_ is like telling _me_ to _stop breathing_ , and _AAAAAAH_!"

She didn't listen.

The vines swooped in and wrapped around her legs, raising her into the air upside down. She hollers and shrieks, and Flora is frantically trying to get both the plants and Stella to calm down.

" _Look what you did, Stella_ ," I whisper. " _I figured something like this was going to happen_."

" _You know, it's kinda funny watching it, hehe. I heard certain realms have this in substitute for detention. Students are out like a_ _ **light**_ _once the blood rushes to their heads_!" Musa laughs quietly.

Flora strokes the plants, getting them quiet. " _It's okay, little plants. She's not going to hurt you_..." The plants slowly come around, going to their original places, then releasing Stella. But not on her feet.

She tries to stifle the cry that emits from her mouth when she nearly hits her head on the ground. " _That was so_ _ **rude of them**_ _!"_

" _More like rude of_ _ **you**_ _to disturb their vibes, Stella!"_ Musa argues.

" _There are dozens of these plants scattered all around this part of the swamp_ ," Techna chimes in. " _We must be careful not to raise our voi_ —

" _AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"_

We all jump hearing that. The vines twitch, but don't move.

" _Was that the Specialists_?" I ask, noting that the only _male_ humanoid being out here is Professor Palladium, and his voice is high, but not _that_ high.

" _I believe so_ ," Flora whispers, and we follow her through the forest of vines in the direction of the distressed yelling. It doesn't take us long to find the source.

The Specialists (Brandon, Prince Sky, Riven, and Timmy) are hanging from the vines, wrapped all around their bodies, slowly slinking towards their necks. Timmy is literally crying for someone to help them, sputtering about the possibility of death, but Flora comes by and quickly calms the plants down (and Timmy).

"Thanks, girls," Sky says, once they're freed from the unforgiving grasp of the vines. "Any more seconds, and we would've been plant food."

"Plants do not eat food. They produce their own," Techna chimes in, not even looking at us. She's assisting Flora calming down all the plants so we won't have to be too cautious.

"Yeah, but it really is a relief you came," Brandon says. "We've had no luck finding that troll!"

"We've searched everywhere!" Timmy cries. "Troll's aren't particularly smart, so there's no way he has a specific goal in mind. But from how slow we're moving, the troll could be in a whole 'nother dimension right now!"

"That's why _I'm_ saying," Riven snarls, "I should go alone! I don't _need_ you three slowing me down! If it were just me—" He glares at Brandon "—and _I_ were the leader, we would've been back before sundown!"

"Hey, now I'm _not_ the leader. We never decided that!" Brandon argues.

"Yeah, 'cause you sure _act_ like it. None of you are fit to be the leader." He points at Sky. " _You're_ just some lousy prince -" points at Timmy "—you're just a useless technician—" points at Brandon "—and _you're_ just a f*cking servant."

"You wanna bet?" Brandon lunges towards him, getting up in his face. Almost as if they were gonna fight.

"Stop it right now!" Flora yells (she can do that now. The plants have been temporarily subdued). "Are you Specialists or enemies?" She whips her head towards both of them. "That's it. We'll help you find the troll, and that's that."

"But -" Timmy starts, but Flora gives him a look and goes on ahead.

"You shouldn't argue with Flora when she's like that." Stella giggles. "It's her mom mode."

* * *

There's no sign of the troll anywhere.

The Specialists weren't kidding when they said there was _nothing there_. The footprints had disappeared, and we didn't see any sign of the blue, ugly, nipple-pierced troll.

As far as we searched, we couldn't seem to find anything. _Nothing_! Not even a piece of hair or even shredded skin. Luckily we had Flora on our side, so she was able to _talk to the trees_ (like the Lorax) and figure out the direction it went off to. And then we had Musa enhance her hearing to listen out for movement, so she was helpful as well. Guess Riven can eat his words, huh?

We're slowly getting closer to the location, but we're suddenly stopped by a long lake, murky and disgusting looking.

"I am _not_ getting in _any more_ water," Stella hisses.

"You won't have to." Timmy kneels down beside the lake with a small device in his hand. "It's much too deep and dangerous to swim through. We're gonna have to find another way."

I look around and see if there's anything that'll work as an alternative to swimming through it. Suddenly, I notice that there's large pieces of turf floating around the place, like a path across the river. I point at them. "Maybe we can use those."

"Is that even big enough to support our weight?" Musa asks, reaching out and touching one.

"Let's hope so, or else the only thing that's holding life and death together is your balance," Sky says slowly. Musa shrugs and pulls herself onto it. The turf wobbles and moves forward, and we hold our breaths, praying to whatever god there is that Musa doesn't topple over. She regains her balance and holds her arms out. She turns her head back towards us. "It's alright! Just be careful!"

I hold in a breath as I jump onto one, as does everyone else. I wobble just like Musa, but fix it quickly. There's so much turf, all of us can find one to hop onto. We look pretty stupid jumping around, though. We're holding out our arms so crazily that we might as well be trying to pass off as planes. But I can't think of that right now. Right _now_ , we need to get across this lake without falling in and being sent to the Nether World.

We get over to the side quickly, Riven being the last one over. We watch as he jumps hops from turf to turf, not caring about the stakes. Typical idiots. Though, as I watch his moves, I'm a little impressed by his balance. The final clump is a bit farther than the rest of them, and he attempts to jump that one as well... But he fails. He falls right into the water, immediately being wrapped in green vines and dragged downwards. That explains why it's extremely dangerous.

" _AAH! Help!_ " he screams, the vines determined to drag him to Hell. Techna goes forward, grabbing onto his outstretched arms, but the vines are _extremely_ strong, so they start to pull her, too. Timmy steps in next, grabbing her legs as she nearly falls in. And now, it's our turn. We all go behind and form a line, pulling each person in front of us backwards, determined to not let anyone go. Because a lot of us have pretty good upper body strength, we're able to rescue all of them in no time. We collapse on the ground, catching our breaths.

Riven whips his head over towards Flora. "What the hell _was_ that?"

"Those were lympha plants," she explains. "They mainly live in swamps and marshes, and attack anything that gets too close to their territory."

"It wouldn't have happened," Musa hisses, "if you weren't being such an arrogant idiot."

"Keep your mouth shut, _fairy_ ," Riven snaps at Musa.

The two glare at each other for a bit, and suddenly a hand touches my shoulder. I look up, and it's Brandon. He's looking a bit concerned for me. I stand up, smiling at him.

"Are you okay?" he asks. "That was pretty dangerous."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Balance lessons in PE help a lot." I laugh sheepishly. I find it fun how he immediately came to check up on me. Like a teen rom-com.

He cocks his head. "PE?"

Oh, right. "Physical education. Earth schools have it."

He nods in understanding. "Earth sounds so different."

"It really is. Less magic and more drama."

I feel Stella staring at me, a mischievous grin on her face. She's definitely going to tease me about this later.

Techna and Timmy are standing next to the water, talking about the plants over. I feel like this whole _day_ has been about plants. Plants, plants, plants. When I go back to Earth, I'm gonna have a newfound respect for them. Now, I feel bad about that tree I kicked the other day... But in my defense, it was placed unnaturally, and I tripped. I _had_ to take it out on someone!

* * *

_One hour,_

No troll.

_Two hours_ ,

No troll.

_Three hours_ ,

_**No troll**_.

Where the hell is that thing? It's really dark now, and more bugs have appeared, biting me on my legs and arms. That's probably why the supply list required us to bring bug repellent.

"Any more clues from the trees, Flora?" I ask.

Flora shakes her head. "We're pretty far in. The troll hasn't even _been_ on this side of the swamp."

"So you mean to tell us we've been moving in the wrong direction for _how long_?" Riven asks, his voice rising in level and anger.

Flora senses the hostility and side-eyes him. "The trees have lost contact with him. It's been a bit since I've spoken with any trees that have seen him. But that doesn't mean we've lost him altogether."

Riven scoffs. "This is what I get for listening to a _tree hugger_."

Techna looks like she wants to comment, but doesn't say anything. Most likely about the tree hugger part.

"Well, without Flora, we would've never found _anything_ on the troll, so I think we're good," Sky chimes in.

Riven crosses his arms. Suddenly, an ear-splitting scream sounds through the swamp.

"What was that?" Timmy asks, looking around to find where it came from.

"I think we may have encountered our troll." Techna points to the clearing of the wood. Amyrill's group is huddled against a rocky wall, and advancing on them was the one thing we were looking for the whole time.

The big-*ss blue troll, nipple piercings and all.

The Specialists immediately jump into action, taking out the handcuffs and attacking the troll very unceremoniously. Watching them fight is actually kinda jarring. The Winx and I would've done anything...if we had our powers. He would completely _destroy_ us otherwise.

None of the guys listen to each other. Brandon and Riven are arguing about who gets to handcuff the troll, Sky is trying to tackle it, but it's throwing him back, and Timmy is caught in the middle of it.

By the end of it, the troll had escaped from their grasp, and the only time the handcuffs had been used was on Timmy.

The _damsels in distress_ look extremely annoyed. Amyrill steps forward, hands on her hips. "I thought saving fairies like us was your job?"

"It is! We just—" Sky explains, but Amyrill abruptly stops him.

"Then, act like it." She flips her hair to the side, her posse walking away with her. For once, I'm not opposed to her ideas. They didn't do so well for Specialists.

And they're arguing again.

"Come on!" Brandon yells. "I told you to grab him by the neck, but you went straight for the legs!"

"If I would've _gone for the damned neck_ , I would've been thrown off! You're a f*cking lousy leader if you didn't know _that_!" Riven snaps.

"Stop calling me that. I'm not the leader, I'm just helping."

"You're a sh*tty help, but that's all you _can_ do. You're just _the help_. You can't do anything. Not even capture a troll, nor protect your special prince. Who—might I add—did just as a sh*tty job recapturing the troll!"

"I don't see _you_ with the troll, either, Riven," Sky jumps in. "I don't know what you're talking about. You got thrown around like a ragdoll like the rest of us."

"Oh, _come on_. You just sat there, looking all princely and waiting for your pretty squire to save you. You didn't do anything, either!"

" _Shut up_!"

They turn their heads.

Timmy stands there, his arms folded and glaring at all of them. "Come on! That fairy was right! All we can do is _argue_. We can't be a team if we can't come together. And now, we're never gonna find that troll, so in conclusion, it's _all_ our faults!"

The Specialists are subdued. They don't say anything and just walk away back towards us as if they're returning from a battle they horribly lost. _Which they did._

* * *

We never _do_ find the troll again. It's gone.

Flora tries to talk to the trees, but none of them know what happened. And then, after about another hour searching, she tells us that, according to the trees, the troll had been abducted by three witches (the Trix, obviously).

"So it's gone?" Brandon asks. "The troll's _gone_?"

Flora nods. "The Trix must've done something. I'm sorry."

They look disappointed and upset, but take the news. And as for us fairies, we never _did_ finish our assignment, so now we have to go back to Palladium with an F.

We all walk back to the beginning area of the swamp where Palladium is standing with the rest of the girls. A lot of them are covered in mud and other mess, but content. And then you have us. Nothing in hand, _extremely_ dirty, followed by a bunch of disgruntled teenage boys.

"There you are!" Palladium cries. "You're the last ones to arrive, and you never showed me your things for the assignment."

"Yeah... About that..." I say sheepishly.

"It wasn't our fault, professor!" Musa cries.

"Yeah! So basically, we were trying to _do_ our assignment and—" Stella rapid fire tries to explain, but she's cut off by Palladium laughing.

"You don't need to explain. I already know what happened. Don't worry. You get an A."

All of us gasp, and I feel super relieved. "Wait, really?"

"Of course. Using my tracking and my magic, I was able to see what you were doing. I admire your courage, both parties." He smiles at the Specialists. "I've called Faragonda, who has called Codatorta, and asked to send you home." He looks up. "And there he is now."

Above, a Red Fountain aircraft comes floating downwards, landing on the water. An entrance opens, and a gruff voice yells, " _Get in, ya maggots_!"

The Specialists wave goodbye (Sky gives Stella a kiss on the cheek, which leaves her a bit giddy), and the spacecraft flies off into the air, disappearing beyond.

"Thank you for understanding, professor," I say, still extremely relieved.

He holds his hand up. "Ah ah. Now, don't think you're _completely_ off the hook. You need a way to make up for this." He suddenly gets an idea. "And I know _how_. You five are going to assist Chef Sfoglia in the kitchens for a week."

" _Kitchen work_?" Stella shrieks. "I've never done _kitchen work_!"

Palladium clicks his tongue. "Well, you need to make the grade _somehow_."

She groans.

"Now, let's head on home, shall we?"

* * *

The minute we get back to Alfea, we take a hot bath and go straight to sleep. Today was a lot.

But on the bright side, we watched Shrek the very next day, and they loved it!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next one is where things pick up again.


	5. Date With Disaster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stella finds out that maybe you should be a bit more skeptical when accepting letters from the guy you like.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)

**H** ome ec. and Mom's teachings actually came in handy working in the kitchens. You wouldn't think so, being in a magical universe. You would expect cooking to be filled with magic and strange ingredients like pig liver and dragon's tongue, but no. It's very normal. Carrots, pig meat, and grease are normal ingredients here, along with stoves and pots and microwaves. ...and it just came to me that they could've made it look super normal to stop us from using the magic way and being finished.

Oh, well.

We spent the week cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and the menus changed everyday, so we never stuck with one dish. On Mondays, we would have cereal, milk, and whatnot; then for lunch, you would have grilled cheese and soda, and for dinner, you would eat pork and tea. It would keep changing depending on what you ordered.

Saturdays and Sundays were quite random. You could order food at any time, and now I have newfound respect for Sfoglia.

Stella heavily complains about us not being paid, but in a way, we _are_ being paid. Paid in a good grade.

Our cooking isn't _horrible_ , Chef Sfoglia says. Though, he doesn't seem to compliment many people. But I guess he's saying we're pretty good, and I'm glad. We've had small instances where we would almost screw up the whole dish, but with the help of Mama Flora, we saved it.

You see, none of us are really _bad_ cooks. You have Flora and I, who know what we're doing, we have Musa, who spends a lot more time taste testing than cooking, and then you have Techna and Stella, who cannot be paired up together to cook, nor be unsupervised. They burn everything they touch. From melting a plastic spoon and spiking sauce with plastic to causing a fire that nearly kills us all, they'll do it all. It's _scary_.

Today is our last day of being in the kitchens, and Stella didn't show up. No text, no warning, nothing. She was gone. Though, I expected as much. When Stella doesn't want to do something, she won't say anything; she just _won't do it._ At least the only person we have to look out for Techna.

We're cooking a casserole for everyone, and it looks _really_ good. But we don't get to eat it until dinner _ends_. Musa, on the other hand, eats it anyway. Because Musa could not give less of a sh*t.

Suddenly, as we're resting after we've finished the casserole, Stella comes bursting into the kitchens, looking over excited.

"Look who finally decided to show up," Musa says, licking her fingers - as she had just noticed she still had cheese on them.

"I have _excellent_ news!" Stella spins around, holding a letter to her chest. She's glowing. Literally. According to Stella herself, when she gets over excited, she starts _glowing_. That's actually so cool. "Guess who just scored herself a date?"

"I assume 'tis you?" Techna asks, tilting her head.

"' _Tis me_!" Stella shrieks. "Prince Sky has asked me— _me_ —to go out with him. We're going to the hot, new restaurant in downtown Magix! _Tonight_!"

"Tonight?" Flora turns her head from the counter. "That's on short notice."

"Who _cares_? I'm going out with _him_!"

"Is this your first date ever?" I ask. "You sure seem _extremely_ excited."

Stella's glow darkens a bit, and she cringes. "W-well, _yeah_ , but _don't tell anyone_. There was a time in my life when I wasn't as pretty." She runs a couple through her gorgeous blonde hair as a demonstration. "It was a really, _really_ dark time for me. But now that I _am_ pretty, boys are turning their heads, and the boy I've been _trying_ to impress asked me out!"

"Well, congrats, Stella." Flora sits down. "But we would appreciate it more _if_ you would've helped us make the casserole."

"Oh. Well, I have a way to make up for it. You guys get to help me pick out what I'm going to wear!"

Musa looks confused. "How is that—" She shrugs, giving up suddenly. "Oh, well."

* * *

Stella's closet is huge. Did I mention that?

It's a walk-in closet. A _glamorous_ walk-in closet. Clothes are organized by the season, style, article, etc. A lot of them still have the price tag on it, and they _glow_. I want to touch it. I want to touch _all her clothes_. I have to stop myself from creepily stroking this really cute sweater I found.

"Do you even really _need_ these clothes?" Musa asks, pulling out a pair of pants. "If you gave this to a poor person, they would be supplied for _years_."

"If you don't want them, I'll take 'em!" I respond hungrily.

Stella laughs. "First of all, _Musa_ , _yes_ , I _do_ need these clothes. Wearing the same thing twice is an abomination. Second, Bloom, don't worry, I see you about to commit murder. I'll let you wear some. But you're getting off topic. This about _me_."

"Everything's about you," Musa mutters, but Stella doesn't hear her.

"I am not a clothing expert, but I believe this would look excellent on you." Techna pulls out an interesting piece. It's mainly black, with glowing green lines in places like the middle and down parts of the pants part. The left side has a hanging sleeve with silver lines swirling around, while the other side has long sleeves which seem tight around the arm with a chain-like belt wrapped around it. More green lines are added as well. I can't see much of the pants part, but the shoes that go with it are behind me, and they are belted, black boots. It looks like it just came out of a sci-fi movie. "If you possibly include a scarf to place your nose and mouth, I believe you would look wonderful."

Stella cringes. "I'll look like a criminal in that! And the colors don't go with my hair _at all_. But I'll let you have it. You're into stuff like that."

Techna doesn't seem all too offended by Stella's insult of her outfit choice. In fact, there's a ghost of a smile on her face as she places it over her shoulder to take it back with her.

"Maybe this, then?" Flora pulls out a long, flowing dress with flower petals entirely adorning the top and flower patterns covering the bottom. The bottom part is mainly white, though.

"Flora, you're only saying that because it would look good on _you_. You can keep that one. I don't wanna look like I just came out of a butterfly room."

"What about this?" Musa shows Stella an ensemble of a creamy colored dress-shirt thing with a maroon ribbon on the side. She also holds up a pair of black leggings to go underneath. "I don't know what shoes would go good with this, so I'll let you decide that."

Stella cringes even harder. " _Musa_! I'm going on a _restaurant_ date, not a _movie_ date! You really need to learn appropriate clothes for certain events."

"You're the _same_ girl who showed up the welcoming dance looking like a bride at her reception!"

"And _you're_ the same girl who goes out in public wearing nothing but sweatpants, sweatshirts, and ugly-*ss flip-flops, looking like you _just_ woke up!"

"At least I don't look like a spoiled brat!"

"Spoiled brat? Musa, hunny, you're only saying that 'cause—"

" _Alright_! Before you two kill each other!" I cry. "What about this? I heard that pink looks really nice on blondes!" I hold up a pastel-pink knee-length dress with a strappy back design. "Would this be good?"

Stella moves away from Musa and grabs the dress from my hands. "Bloom, I think you're onto something..." She snaps her fingers. "It's confirmed. I'm choosing this one." She disappears somewhere, probably to change, and Musa flops down onto the floor. "Doesn't she realize how selfish she is?"

"Hey, Musa..." Flora began, sounding more and more like a reassuring mom more and more. "It's her first date _ever_. Of course, she's gonna be a bit... _hard to deal with_."

" _Hard to deal with_? Flora, she acts like this _everyday_. You know, one of these days, she's gonna be hit hard, and it's not gonna be my fault. Bloom." She turns her head towards me. "How do you deal with her?"

I shrug, really thinking about it. I never really had a lot of friends growing up (with the acception of Roxy Moore). I dunno if Andy counts since he was my _boyfriend_ , but I kinda kept to myself. I spent more time with my parents, though. Stella was my first friend in a long time. "You just get used to her, I guess."

Musa rolls her eyes just as Stella reemerges. "How do I look, ladies?" She spins around, letting us get a good look at her. She really does look nice, and she had added golden hoop earrings to go with it. Her hair was pushed behind her and a bit to the side, letting us see the jewelry. She has a white and gold purse in her hand, with white heels.

"You appear as you normally do, Stella," Techna says nonchalantly.

Stella purses her lips. " _Date_ wise."

"You look really good, Stella!" I say, standing up to get a good look at her. It makes me think of _my_ first date. I had worn a pretty blue dress with a clip in it, but I ended up spilling spaghetti on it, ruining it, but Andy—the sweetie—had decided to spill spaghetti on his own suit so we would match. It was a really sweet move, and it makes me wonder what would life be like if we were still dating. I don't actually mind too much anymore, though. I think we're better off just being friends. Besides, I already _have_ my eyes on a man. It starts with a B and ends with Randon.

"Don't I?" Stella flips her hair a bit. She eyes her ring on her finger. "But I think the ring is a bit much..."

"A bit _much_?" Musa asks, but Flora side-eyes her, telling her to subtly _shush_.

"I do not advise you to leave your ring here," Techna warns. "Do be warned that witches and other enemies roam around Magix at night. They could attack you, and I assume you would not want your date ruined?"

"Yeah, yeah, but it just doesn't _look right_ with the ring!" Stella complains. "I'm leaving it here." She slips it off and immediately holds it out towards me. "But I'm gonna take _some_ precaution. Tech, don't you have that tracker you enhanced?"

Techna nods. "I shall grab that," and she walks off out of the closet.

"And while she's grabbing that, I'm holding you personally responsible for my ring," Stella says to me.

I blink confused. "Why me?"

"Because, Bloom! You're the one I've known the longest, meaning you're the one I can trust." Techna walks back into the closet with something in hand. "You need to look after my ring. Tech, here, made this tracker to keep an eye on me. If something goes wrong, I'll send a distress signal, and you gals can come to my rescue. Got it?"

"That...doesn't seem like such a bad plan," Flora comments.

"For once, Stella's saying something smart!" Musa snorts. Stella sticks her tongue out, and I stifle my laughter.

* * *

After a while, Stella goes onto the bus to head off to Magix (but before she left, she complained Sky wasn't picking her up from there, making her go on the cheap and smelly bus, but got on regardless), and the Winx (minus one) and I eventually are all sprawled out in the living room, talking about our relationships and dates.

"Musa, I'm sorry for doing a Stella, but it seems like you _really_ want Riven to ask you out!" Flora asks, giggling.

Musa throws a pillow at her. "Of _course_ I do! But he's too much of a d*ck to realize! He's the first guy _I've_ ever been pining for. The rest of them were girls who confessed to me back at the boarding school I used to attend. Most of them I knew and already thought they were cute, so I dated them, but for some reason they never worked out. Some said I was 'too intense' or I 'vibe too hard'. B*tch, what is _that_ supposed to mean?"

I couldn't help but giggle at that. "I've only dated _one_ guy in my life, and his name was Andy. He was super sweet, kinda looked like your average early 2000s emo kid, but his sister got in the way of everything, and we broke up. We're just friends, now."

"And _now_ , you get to move on with Brandon!" Flora pushes my shoulder a bit playfully.

"Hey, Tech! You've been a bit quiet for a bit," Musa says. Techna isn't paying attention at all. "What about _your_ love life?"

"I have never been courted, nor have I tried to court anyone else. I do not seek love. I seek knowledge and education and do not wish for anything to get in the way of that."

Musa blinks. "C-can't you just say _date_?"

Techna turns off her phone and stares blankly at Musa. "Fine. I have never _dated_ anyone."

"Hm... But you've been texting Timmy more often than not nowadays. You're always on your phone," I inquire. "Though, it could just be your parents..." My mom and dad text me _all the time_ , but I don't mind. I like helping them keep up.

"I do not have the closest relationship with my father."

"Well, that means it _is_ Timmy, ain't it, Tech?" Musa asks, getting a bit closer. "Are you two _bonding_ over motherboards and wires?"

" _No_. We speak about whatever comes to mind. Our relationship is platonic. And it shall stay that way."

"But do _you_ want it to stay platonic?" Musa asks. Techna doesn't respond to that. Momentarily, she answers quickly, "I have never felt the feeling of romantic love, and I believe it shall stay that way."

Flora cocks her head, looking concerned. "Really, never?"

"Not even once? L-like in a TV show or something?" I used to have a _huge_ crush on Taylor Lautner back in the day.

"No."

Flora hums in understanding. "Well, I think it's a wonderful feeling that everyone should experience. You never know, Techna. You might feel love once in your life, and I do believe you'll like it."

Once again, she doesn't respond. She seems a bit uncomfortable. Suddenly, a buzzing sound snaps us out of our revelry. Techna's tracker _thingy_ begins going crazy, and my heart begins to race. _Is Stella okay_?

Techna grabs it, immediately showing a diagram, a small, pink dot which I assume is Stella. The dot seems to be standing in some weird area with three green dots surrounding her.

"Maybe that's just the restaurant she's at?" Musa asks.

"Of course not. The tracker would only go off if she was in true danger." Techna begins sending the coordinates to her phone, when suddenly the beeping stops.

We stare blankly at the machine for quite some time, wondering if it was going to go off again, but it doesn't.

"It may have...glitched out," Flora suggests. "It might've been an accident, Tech."

"An accident? _Glitched out_? Flora, dear, my inventions do not simply _glitch out_. What I have created is a beautiful piece of technological advancements, and I would not like to have my creations compared to those of modern technology!" Techna stops for a moment, seemingly trying to calm herself down. She sits down again, this time speaking normally and less passionate. "Try calling her. If she does not respond, we shall travel out there and check on her."

I nod, taking off my phone. Stella's contact is third on the favorites tab (below my mom and dad). Pressing it and hitting the _call_ tab, I let the phone sit and ring while I turn on the speaker.

There's an uncomfortable silence between the Winx and I while we sit and listen to the ring. I'm scared if anything happens to poor Stella. I bite my lip and try not to chew my nails, hoping— _praying_ —that she picks up.

The familiar sound of Stella asking, " _Hello_?" makes our hearts beat normally again.

"Stella!" I cry. "Are you okay?"

" _Of course I am_ ," Stella answers, a bit rudely. " _Why wouldn't I be_?"

"I-it's just... Um... Techna's tracker machine thing went off, and we thought something had happened to you. We're calling to check on you."

Stella seems to be talking to someone, but she responds, " _Of course everything's okay! It was just it being faulty, that's all_."

Techna looks nearly furious and nearly retorts indignantly to the phone, but Flora holds her back.

"Oh, alright," I say, slightly taken aback by Stella's harsh tone. "W-well, I won't bother you on your date. Have a good night."

Stella doesn't even say goodbye. She just hangs up, and I put my phone down. "Well, she says she's okay."

"I don't trust that," Flora inquires. "Did you hear her tone of voice? She sounded annoyed."

"It's probably because we were bothering her on her _precious_ date," Musa hisses. "We'll see her in the morning. Unless she and Brandon decide to get it on—they better not do it _here_. I have sleep I want to get."

I shrug, sincerely thinking the same thing. "I guess it really was a glitch in the system. Sorry, Tech."

Techna doesn't respond. She just takes her gadget-thing and leaves the room.

* * *

Two hours before I _would've_ liked to have woken up, Flora and I awake to the sound of crashing and screaming.

Both of us (still in our nightclothes) walk into the foyer, trying to hear the cause of the noise. Techna and Musa come out of their room as well, Musa looking adamant on murdering whoever woke her up too early. Obviously, it's coming from Stella's room, so I lean forward and slowly open her door.

Inside, Stella is completely trashing her room, throwing chairs over and sh*t. She literally turned her room upside down. She has a crazy look about her, kinda freaking me out.

"Stella...?" I question cautiously. "Is everything okay in here?"

"Oi! Princess! Why the hell'd you wake us up too early?" Musa yells harshly.

Stella turns her head towards us creepily. " _Oh_! _Hi, friends_! Sorry I disturbed you, but I'm doing something right now, so _go back to sleep_." She walks towards the door and attempts to push us out of her doorway, but the four of us are stronger than we look.

"Whoa, whoa, Stella, why are you in such a rush?" I ask. "Do you need help?"

"Nope, don't need anything at all!" Stella cries, trying to sound cheery, but it seems more forced. "You can go now."

"Wait! How did the date go?" Flora asks. "You can't just go on your first date and not tell us! Did everything go alright?"

"Everything was alright," Stella replies, gritting her teeth. "Now, _leave me be_!" And with a great push, she slams the door, pushing us all back.

* * *

Stella hasn't talked to any of us since yesterday. And now, we're back at school, and Stella is nowhere to be seen.

"Maybe she was so pissed off that Sky's d*ck wasn't big enough for her, she started acting like this," Musa jokes, placing her _Magical Mythology_ book into her locker.

"Musa, that's not funny," Flora scolds. "Something seriously needs to be bothering her, and _yes_ , Stella can get angry over minor issues like that, but not like this. Something is seriously bothering her."

"Maybe Sky actually _did_ something to her. Insulted her or something?" I suggest.

"But it does not seem likely," Techna adds. "Have you not noticed his behavior towards Stella? He truly seems to care for her and would not intend to hurt her. It must be something more deeper, something that she does not feel obliged to tell us. And I think it may have something to do with my gadget going off."

"Tech, are you _still_ going on about that?" Musa asks. "It glitched out! It happens!"

"No, it did not _glitch out_! And I would appreciate it if you would not imply that it did! Something happened. It would have only reacted if Stella was in imminent danger, and her peculiar behavior only makes it appear to be the case, and I guarantee you that if not danger, something _happened_." Techna sits down on one of the ottomans and crosses her arms.

"I sigh. Alright, fine. I'll go check on her. She hasn't left her room since last night. She's probably still there. Maybe it's something minor. She might've calmed down by now. It's lunch anyway." I look up to the hologram covering half of the wall behind us, telling us what class/period it was. It was currently lunch, so I had time to go talk to her. "I'll be back." I walk off towards the stairwell where the dorm hall is. Stella should be fine. Something _must've_ happened, though. Maybe something really sensitive to her happened. Or maybe she just overreacted. All these thoughts roam my mind as I enter the dorm hall, scanning the names on the doors for our apartment. Once I arrive there, I'm welcomed with a strange sight:

The entire room is _trashed_. Chairs are overturned, there are a couple broken windows, the plants are smashed, a couple tables have been thrown around, and just...the entire room is basically _destroyed_. How angry _was_ Stella?

I walk around, trying not to trip over something that might _kill_ me. I step over a couple plants and books (I feel really bad for those plants. If Stella hasn't killed herself, Flora might do it for her), trying to see if Stella was still here.

"Stella...?" I question cautiously. Just taking a hunch here, but Stella doesn't seem to be in a very good mood right now.

Suddenly, a door slams shut behind me, making me jerk my head back. Stella's standing by the door, her arms crossed, something glinting in her eyes that gives me a bad feeling. "Oh, hi, Bloom. Long time, no see." She smiles eerily. "I think you have something of mine?"

I blink confused. I don't have anything of hers. If so, she would've found it by now. The only thing I can think of is that outfit she let me have in her closet. I don't think she would go crazy over that. Stella's greedy, but not so greedy she would obliterate our room!

"What...do you mean? Stella, _what_ is the matter with you? You've been—"

"My ring, Bloom. I want my ring! And _you're_ going to give it to me."

I gasp. Oh, right! She had given it to me the other day, didn't she? I had brought it around with me, forgetting about it, and I placed my hand in my skirt pocket, but hesitated on bringing it out. Maybe if I ask _why_ Stella's acting this way, I can get answers.

"But wait! What happened the other day? You were just fine when you left, but when we saw you again, you started acting like a total b*tch! What the hell's the matter with you? Don't you remember giving me your ring?"

Stella's hands start glowing—a dark, purplish-black color very different from her normal power. Something's not right about this at all....

"Well, I want it _now_." Suddenly, Stella laughs. "Better yet, how about you meet me at the Black Lagoon? The restaurant I want to? And then, you can give it to me. Eightish—nine o'clock? I want it _before_ then. If not..." She looks at her nails. "You may lose something _important_ to you."

She blasted the window closest to us completely, transforming into a dark, shadow-like figure and gracefully flying out of the window into the air. From the force of it, I go toppling backwards, nearly hitting my head on an overturned counter. I rub my back and take out my phone, sending an emergency text to the group chat.

_come to the dorms rn. stella's gone crazy!_

* * *

Flora, Musa, and Techna arrive at the dorms not too long after I send the texts. When they see the destroyed bedroom, Flora immediately rushes to some of the broken plants, Musa simply steps over the crap on the floor, and Techna tenses up.

"What the hell?" Musa asks, placing her hands on her hips. "Was Stella practicing a wind spell, and it went horribly wrong?"

"No," I explain, helping poor Flora scoop up some of the dirt spilled from the broken pots. "She was looking for her ring."

"But _you_ had her ring!" Flora cries, looking distressed over her fallen plants. "Why couldn't she have asked you? Then, we wouldn't have had this problem."

"'The rooms are in shambles!" Techna cries. "How could Stella have managed to get everything in such disarray?"

"She was desperate to get her ring," I clarify. "And I think something is terribly wrong with her. You didn't see her. Her powers were...different from her own. _Dark_. And she was able to dissolve into weird _power things_ and fly out of the window." I point to the window to our left. "Something's _seriously_ not right."

"Stella's basically powerless without her ring, and don't _you_ have it?" Musa asks, picking up stuff from the ground.

"Yeah. That's what's _truly_ weird about all of it." I take it out of my pocket, examining it. It really is extremely pretty. It seems to glow—shiny and pretty and downright gorgeous. "And she said we need to meet her at the 'Black Lagoon' at eight or nine o'clock, or else we would lose 'something important'."

"That confirms my theories," Techna says. "I believe something more sinister is behind this."

"And the only person who would know more than us about it..." Musa holds up the letter Stella had received from Sky. "Prince Sky of Eraklyon."

* * *

We have to get special permission to head to Red Fountain.

It takes us _forever_ to convince Griselda to let us go. We didn't mention what had really happened, but Griselda interrogates us heavily, simply believing we're just going over there to see our boyfriends. In the end, Flora simply tells her that it's _extremely_ important in her motherly _yet_ stern voice, and Griselda simply grumbles and tells us we can go, but _only_ if we're chaperoned by Palladium and return _before_ the day is over. We head over there, keeping an eye on the time, and we request to speak to Prince Sky to Codatorta, who is scarier than expected. He's burly and tall and feels like he's constantly glaring at you, but when he actually speaks, he's not that bad. In fact, he laughs with us a bit before Sky comes in, looking confused at seeing us all. Once Codatorta is out of sight, we all bombard him with questions.

"Where's Stella?"

"What happened to her?"

"What the hell did you say to her?"

"Did you witness something suspicious happen to Stella?"

Sky holds up his hands in surrender. "Whoa whoa _whoa_! Slow down, ladies! I can't hear a word you're saying!"

Flora's the first to explain. "What happened on your date with Stella the other day? When she left, she was just fine, but when she returned, she was rude and mean and completely unlike herself. You were the only one who was with her between the time she arrived at the Black Lagoon—"

"Which was around twenty hundred hours on Saturday," Techna cuts in.

"—and when she came back."

"Which was possibly around five in the morning or earlier."

"Correct. So we need to know if you know anything. We're not saying _you're_ the cause of what happened—"

"Even though you probably _are_ ," Musa interrupts.

"—but we need all the information you know about what happened to Stella."

Sky seems confused and stares at us blankly. "Uh... Are you sure you have the right guy?"

"Of course we do!" I cry. "You're the one who sent her the letter! Weren't you with her Saturday?"

"I mean, we video chatted that day, but we didn't really do anything. I barely have time for trips to Magix anymore," Sky explains. "I'm getting beat in the *ss with these new training techniques. One of these days, I'm gonna flop onto the bed and never wake up."

We're all gaping now. That doesn't make any sense! Was it cancelled without our knowledge? Maybe he's just trying to cover his tracks because he secretly did something to Stella...! I know, I know. A bit far-fetched, but I'm really worried about her. But if he's telling the truth, and they really didn't go anywhere on Saturday... Then, who did Stella go with?

Techna steps forward and gets quite close to Brandon's face.

"Uh, what are you doing?" he asks, backing up a bit. Techna's basically boring holes into his face.

"Scanning you. I am checking if you recently suffered from head related injuries that may have altered your memory." She cocks her head a bit, and I notice that her left eye (the purple one) glints a bit. After a bit, she steps back. "Collision to the head has occurred, but not harsh enough to have had a negative effect on his memory. I believe 'tis clear that you are speaking a falsehood, Prince Sky."

"I'm not speaking...falsehood...? (It has the word _false_ in it, so I assume untrue). I'm really telling the truth! I haven't seen Stella in person since a couple weeks ago. Not to say I don't _want_ to see her." He smiles. "Really. If it weren't for her, I would have nothing to really look forward to." He stares off into space. "She's the girl of my dreams."

"Yeah, well, she's being the girl of our _nightmares_ , right now," Musa retorts. "And you're telling us you _haven't_ seen her. Honestly? Like—you did not see her at _all_ —besides your video call—on Saturday?"

He shakes his head. "Sorry. _But_ I will call one of you if I see her, alright?"

Flora nods. "Thank you for your help anyway."

We feel dejected, now. What the hell actually happened on Saturday?

* * *

We spend the rest of the day sitting around and trying to figure out what happened, keeping an eye on the clock.

We have a couple conspiracies going around.

I think that Stella had been bamboozled with a fake letter, and maybe some witches placed a spell on her.

Flora thinks that, too, but instead of being bewitched, she was just in a particularly bad mood (but that's been kinda debunked. I think Stella's outburst was a bit more than just a _bad mood_ ).

Musa thinks Stella's just being a b*tch. (But seriously—her theory is that she hit her head too hard somewhere, and she lost her memory, and now she's super confused. I kinda debunk that one, too, because she wouldn't've remembered her ring or us in particular, right? I dunno. This whole thing is giving me a headache.)

Techna thinks that Stella's in some actual danger, and it may have had negative effects on her magic and whatnot, hence why her gadget went off (but it's mainly because Techna's is so adamant on believing that her tracker didn't fizz out, but really, I'm kinda believe anything now. I just wanna find Stella).

Next, we're trying to figure out what "Stella" (quote fingers, because I'm starting to get the impression that she _could_ be possessed. Or maybe it's me stressing) meant by us "losing something important". No one (as far as we know) is missing, neither is any important object. I have her ring, and no one close to us has mysteriously disappeared. It was just so cryptic, it made me worried. That fact that we _don't_ know what we could be losing freaks me out. It's probably something right under our noses. And we just don't know it.

Around seven-thirty (because we want to be punctual), we sneak out of the castle.

It's harder than we thought. The school technically shuts down at nine, but the sensors and security cameras are ultra turned on at seven. If we even _stepped_ outside, we'd be caught. That's why we have Techna on our side.

That's why, for the two hours prior, Techna had sat in her room, us watching her, trying to figure out a way to hack into the cameras and sensors and switch them off. The teachers would never let us out, and who knows what "Stella" will do if the teachers show up? I've watched enough movies and read enough books to know that kidnappers don't like it when you bring backup _before_ you face them. You only get backup _after_ you've confronted them.

The sensors and cameras were nearly _impossible_ to turn off. Whoever installed them did a _hell_ of a good job. It nearly stumped _Techna_. _Techna_! of all people! She eventually called Timmy to assist over the phone, and with the help of _two_ geniuses, we were able to do some spy-level hacking. I wonder if we could get arrested for that, though.... (If Stella were here, she would interrogate Techna on _why exactly_ she had given her phone out to Timmy, and why it was on her favorites tab. But I'm not in the mood for much teasing right now. This whole thing gives me bad feelings.)

Huddled up in warm gear and sneakers, we pass the gate to Alfea, stand out in the chill, wait for a bus to come pick us up, sit on the bus for twenty minutes, and finally arrive at Magix. Magix at night never seems to amaze me. Dazzling lights and bustling people. But the last time I was in Magix after dark, I ended up in a block of ice (you remember that? Of course you did; it happened only three chapters ago!), so I don't really spend a lot of time marveling.

"That is peculiar," Techna mumbles from behind us, looking at her phone.

"What is?" Flora steps next to her, looking down at her phone.

"I attempted to place the coordinates of Black Lagoon into my tracker, but no results appeared. I attempted to use my visual map as well—"

"You have a visual map?" Musa asks, cutting in.

"—but that did not work, either. The only solution is... It simply does not exist, the Black Lagoon."

"A bit far-fetched, don'tcha think?" I ask. "Just because your tech stuff doesn't work doesn't mean it's complete gospel."

Techna crosses her arms. "Well, how are you, pray tell, going to find it yourself?"

"Simple! We _ask_!" I walk over to a random person passing, probably a club member. "Excuse me?"

The person turns their head towards me, raising their eyebrows in the gesture of listening.

"Do you know where the Black Lagoon is?"

They look at me confused. "The... What?"

"Black Lagoon." Flora steps in. "It's the new restaurant that opened? Have you seen or heard of it anywhere?"

The person shakes their head. "Sorry. I dunno what you're talking about."

"Come on!" Musa cries. "It's new! You should've seen a poster or two _somewhere_ around here?"

The person shakes their head once more, looking a bit apprehensive now. "Look, sorry, but I dunno _what_ you're talking about." And before we can interrogate them anymore, they leave, not looking back.

Techna raises an eyebrow, looking a bit smug.

"Oh, that's just one person!" I cry, getting a bit frustrated. "There are thousands of people out here; a couple are _bound_ to know where it is. Or have gone once!"

"Well, we can't waste too much time." Flora looks up to the clocktower in the middle of the city; an ancient piece of the city. "It's eight o'clock. Stella's not gonna wait for much longer."

"Right," I say, and we begin doing our interrogation session.

No one knows. Absolutely _no one_. We ask as many people as we can; mothers, children, club-goers, middle-aged men, old people, _babies_. But none of them know. And it feels like we've asked the whole, entire city! How has no one heard of this _one_ place? I'm slowly getting hysterical. None of this makes sense, none of this makes sense... Where is Stella? What happened to her? And why the _hell_ doesn't anyone know where the f*ck _one_ , stupid restaurant is?

It's eight-forty by the time we stop. I'm slowly losing it.

"Did you find out anything?" I ask as Musa returns. She's the last.

She shakes her head, and I groan aloud. "No one's ever seen it. It's like it never even existed. Like we're from the future, and they're in the past."

"But we _need_ to find Stella!" Flora cries. "Something _must've_ happened to her. It's all clear now."

"We might have already found her _if_ we did not waste our time conversing with strangers about a location that does not exist," Techna says tactlessly.

"Look!" I snap. "We get it! Your gadgets are grade-A, one hundred percent _whatever_! I don't see _you_ doing anything to contribute to Stella's rescue!"

"Contribution? Which one of us hacked into a practically impossible camera system? Which one of us built their own tracker system that, if never created, we would have no possible lead on what may have occurred?" Techna retorts.

"You just _love_ showing off your smarts, huh?" I'm absolutely furious. Stella could be _dead_ , for all we know! I'm stressed as hell, and I just don't know what to do! "Why do you treat _us_ like we're the dumb ones? We know how to do things, too! You're _not_ the smartest person in this room, Tech!"

"Really? Well, at moments like this, I honestly believe it!"

" _Girls, that is enough_!" Flora, using her magic, wraps the both of us up in tight, green vines. "Calm down!" After a bit, she releases us. "Is arguing going to help us find Stella?"

A lump forms in my throat. "No."

"Exactly! If we waste any more time, Stella could be gone! We need to calm down and think!"

I struggle not to cry. This whole thing seems hopeless. There's no way we'll find Stella. At all. Who _knows_ what's happening?

"Uh, guys?" Musa asks from a bit behind us. We turn our heads. She's staring off at the sidewalk across from us. Hiding very indiscreetly is a man, oddly-shaped and with a weird-looking beard. He doesn't notice we see him for a bit, but then, he stumbles over towards us.

"Excuse me? I-I heard you were looking f-for the B-Black Lagoon?"

My eyes widen, and I practically run towards him. "You know where the Black Lagoon is?"

"O-of course!" the man stammers. "I-I saw y-you asking p-people around, and I-I'm very glad to help!"

" _Where is it_?" I'm not really aware of how pushy I'm being until Flora comes up behind me, laying a hand on my shoulder and giving me a look that clearly says, _Tone it down a bit_.

She clasps her hands together and smiles. "Thank you. And you don't have to be so nervous; we're not going to hurt you."

"N-nervous? I-I'm not nervous! N-not at all!" But he's sweating. I don't know if I believe it. Is this guy always like this? He coughs loudly into his fist, then says, "I-if you'll f-follow me, please." He begins to walk past us at a fast pace, and we speedwalk to catch up to him. Musa raises an eyebrow to Techna in a _you were wrong_ manner, who just rolls her eyes.

Turns out it's farther than we thought. We're cutting a bunch of corners, walking through a bunch of alleyways (I'm surprised we didn't find a body or something. I've watched enough Law & Order to know that in large cities, there's bound to be a body or two in alleyways), and passing a whole bunch of sketchy people. I'm starting to not like our "tour guide". Why couldn't he just point us in the right direction? And why is the Black Lagoon so far out? If it's a new restaurant, wouldn't the owners want to place it somewhere where most people would go? Something's not right here....

Oh, well. At least I know what downtown Magix looks like. And that's why I'll probably stay uptown.

We finally arrive at a pleasant looking building surrounded by a garden, the smell of steak, and a wooden sign saying, _The Black Lagoon_.

"Maybe your map's outdated, Tech," Musa says. "Unless you have some weird eye problems or something, the Black Lagoon is _clearly_ right here."

"'Tis not my map! Goodness!" Techna cries. "'Tis something about this place. All new areas placed in Magix City—or anywhere in general—are automatically added to the computerized map. The fact that 'tis not _on_ the map makes me believe that something beyond technology is occurring here, and it worries me."

"You know... Techna might be right..." Flora moves towards the garden, touching the flowers. "These plants aren't real. None of the life apparently here is real. There's a void when I try to communicate with them. I don't trust this at all."

"And the guy's gone, too," I point out. "Let's just get in there and figure it out." I look down at my phone. "It's nine o'clock anyways."

We push over the door of the restaurant, looking around. The exterior of the building _greatly_ differs from the _interior_ of the building. While the exterior looks friendly and welcoming, the interior looks dreary and broken down, giving me a gloomy feel to it. A chill pulses down my spine, and the door slams shut once the last Winx walks in.

"This is the beginning of a horror movie," Musa states. "The naïve, teenage girls walk into a really creepy house, and then they're all slaughtered all before the opening credits show up."

The sound of whimpering alerts us all, making us look around. In the near pitch-darkness, there's faint glow, glimmering on and off constantly. Shaking, I take my phone out once more, turning on the camera light, prepared to have one of them horror movie jumpscares, and move it towards it.

And it's even worse (in my opinion).

Stella's bound to a rickety chair, her hair messed up and coated with dried blood. Her eyes are closed, her clothes are slightly torn, and something like a white sheet is tied over her mouth.

I rush over, grabbing her arm, trying to see if I have anything to untie her with. The other girls gather around, too, shaking her gently.

"Stella!" Flora cries. "Are you alright?"

It takes a moment for Stella to open her eyes, but when she does, she simply stares at us, squints a bit, then begins to wriggle around in the chair, screaming through her gag. I move behind her to untie the gag, while Musa, using Techna's boomerang, begins to untie her binds. Once the sheet is off, Stella begins to look hysterical. "What are you doing here? Why are you here? God—you shouldn't be here!"

"Why are we here?" Musa asks incredulously. "Stella, you're beaten and tied to a f*cking chair! What you should be asking is, _why weren't we here sooner_?"

"No, no, no!" Stella rambles. "You don't understand! This is a trap! This is all a trap! They're going to hurt you! God—you shouldn't have come! You shouldn't— _AAH_!"

Something crashes behind her. Then, the sound of heel clacking makes my heart pound. The other Stella appears. The not-so bloody, bound and gagged one. She stands there, her hands on her hips, smirking at us. "Hello, _friends_. It's nice to see you again."

"Who are you really?" I ask, standing up straight, anger rising in my blood by the minute. "What did you do to Stella?"

"Damn. Took you long enough to realize." Fake Stella sighs and stretches. "Alright. Who do you think I _really_ am?"

We don't respond, but I'm getting a sneaking suspicion it's the familiar trio of witches who just seem to show up a lot more since our first day.

"Alright, I'll give you a hint. Starts with D, ends with Arcy." She giggles. "Get it yet?" In a weird, distorted motion, Fake Stella suddenly reappears as Real Darcy, sneering and pleased with herself. "Surprise~"

So I was somewhat right. Yay, me!

The other two witches appear at her side. Icy looks down at the watch on her wrist and smirks at us. "Hm. It's a couple minutes past nine o'clock. I don't recall saying that you could be _late_. You know, just for that, we should just get rid of Stella without _any_ negotiations." At that, she snaps her fingers, and Stella is violently ripped from the chair towards the witches and into Stormy's grasp who holds a dagger underneath her neck. We all step forward, prepared to fight the hell out of them, but Icy holds up a hand. "Ah ah. I didn't say we _would_. I just said we _should_. And anyway, we're not going to kill her. _Yet_. You see, we'll strike a deal with you fairies, hm? How does that sound?"

"Lousy!" Musa cries. "You witches are gonna go back on your word and kill her anyway!"

"Why shouldn't we?" Stormy snarls.

"Because," Icy turns her head towards Stormy, "we don't need any bloodshed. Common belief is us witches _love_ seeing bloodshed, but that's not true at all. Well, for _us_ anyway. Blood will only be shed if conditions are not met, and it won't be our blood."

"Please get to the deal," Flora commands. "We want Stella, and we want her now."

"My, my, so needy." Icy saunters over to the trembling Stella. "We really _should_ kill her, shouldn't we?"

"Yeah! I've been waiting for this!" Stormy presses the dagger against Stella's throat, happily watching a wound form, blood trickling down her neck. It's too much for me.

"Wait!" I cry, turning all of their attention towards me. "What's your deal?"

"Hold off the killing, Stormy," Darcy says. "Little Fairy wants to negotiate."

"All we want is Stella back," I explain. "No blood shed."

Icy sighs. "Fine. Alrighty. Look; all _this_ is because of one thing. Stella's ring."

My eyes widen, and Flora sucks in a breath behind me. We should've known. It's the one thing they've been after this whole time. The ring and the Light inside it.

"And what?" Musa snaps. "If we don't give it to you, you're gonna kill her?"

"Correct. So smart."

"This is blackmail. Complete blackmail." Musa looks away, contemplating what to do.

"And _you_ have it." Darcy's eyes meet mine. "Princess Stella here spilled the beans the minute Stormy's magic hit her skin. And I know you have it on you right now. I can sense it."

I unconsciously place my hand on my pocket. Looking down at it, I already know what I have to do. They'll kill her. If we attack, they'll kill her before we can even land a hit on them. We could try something else, like distracting them so we can grab Stella, but they'll be able to get us before we can get a plan across. I swallow, taking out the ring. Looking from the witches to the ring, I begin to walk towards them with the intention of giving it to them despite Stella's obvious disapproval, but I have no choice. Techna stops me before I get there, however.

"Bloom, what are you doing?" she whispers.

I gulp. "Giving the ring to the witches. It's the only thing we can do."

"No, no!" she argues. "Blackmail is a sign of weakness. We shall find something else to try. Something that will _not_ cost us an important artifact, nor Stella's life!"

"If I _don't_ give them the ring, they'll kill her. If they're telling the truth, we can get Stella back. What's more important to you? enhanced power or a person's life."

She doesn't respond to that, but after a bit says, "Bloom, this is a grave mistake. And how do you know they will not simply murder her even after you give them the ring?"

"Tick tock," Icy's voice rings. "You're on a clock."

I look back at Techna. "I don't. But I'm trusting my gut, and you should, too." I turn away from her, approaching Icy. "Here. Take it. Now, give us Stella." I place it in Icy's hands.

"Alrighty." Icy turns to Stormy. "Let her go."

"Ugh!" Stormy pushes Stella forward onto the ground, and we rush over to help her. "Why couldn't they have just disagreed? I'm done with that goody-goody fairy."

"But we have what we're looking for." Darcy stares at the ring longingly. "Can't wait to see how much power this bad-boy has."

"Our time here is up. Bye, fairies." And with that, the witches disappear, and the building begins to crumble. Grabbing onto Stella, we rush out of the place to avoid being crushed by falling walls, and just in time, too. The minute the last Winx stepped out of the place, it completely crumbled and simply disappeared.

As if it was never there in the first place.

* * *

We had to call an ambulance for Stella and got a ride to Magix Hospital. It's not too different from a hospital back home, but the patients have sustained injuries from magical means. I saw one person being rushed into the ICU with whole limbs turned into tentacles!

The other girls aren't too fazed by it, however, seeing as they _are_ magical beings, but it's just so cool here.

Oh. And the teachers were called. They were _not_ happy when they saw us, asking us why we were past curfew and why one of their students was in the hospital. We decided against telling them what happened, but we ended up getting two weeks detention. Isn't that fun?

We spent our time in Stella's hospital room. She's fine. Just slight magical trauma (that's something new) and just in general bruising and scratches, according to the nurse. She would get to leave in about two days. But we're all kinda tense.

"What happened to you?" Flora asks, holding Stella's hand. We're all sitting or standing around the hospital room, with Stella in the middle of us all. She doesn't seem too fazed, being propped up on one of those beds you see in hospitals. Or TV, if you've never been to a hospital. But I don't think any of you have never stepped foot into a hospital.

"Well..." Stella twirls a piece of her hair with her free hand. "I had taken a bus there, and some really ugly guy showed up, telling me where to go and stuff. I was expecting Prince Sky to be there with a red carpet and whatnot, so when I didn't see any red carpet or a prince, I got confused. Turns out I had been bamboozled by the Trix and found myself kidnapped. Wasn't pleasant. But at least one thing came out of it."

"What?" I ask curiously. I don't recall anything _good_ happening.

"I've been reflecting on myself, and I can be so rude at times. I apologize to all of you. Really. I don't really mean anything I say, anyway. And I'm mainly looking at you, Musa."

Musa, who is leant against the wall, looks away. "S'fine. I don't stay mad anyway. And it would be pretty sh*tty of me to be mad at you after you were nearly killed for ransom."

"We're just glad you're okay, Stella." Flora grips Stella's hand tighter. "I think we should keep a closer eye on you, now. You scared us all."

"Mama Flora's right," I agree, laughing a bit. "If we didn't comply with Fake Stella's deal, you could've been dead. You're a friend to all of us."

Stella smiles brightly, and there's a slight glow to her. We're interrupted by this moment by the sound of discomfort. Turning our heads, Techna's staring out of the window, seemingly a bit lost in thought, but once she feels our eyes on her, she turns her head towards us. "Are you not forgetting something crucial that has just happened" She doesn't give us time to answer. "Stella's ring is gone. Absent. Missing. And by now, the witches could have discovered every detail of it. And this may not have happened if a particular person did not just _do_. Bloom, I do not when we decided, but you are not the leader of this group."

I swallow. She's right. "Look... I know. I've been thinking about that this whole time. I know it seems _really_ dumb, but can you blame me? Stella might've died if I didn't give it over. I wouldn't be able to live with myself. I had to make a decision then and there. I couldn't think logically."

Nothing's written on Techna's face. After a brief exhale, she asks, "Then, what shall we do?"

"Simple!" Stella sits up. "We get it back!"

"How?" Flora asks.

"Those witches are smart, but not _that_ smart. Since it belongs to me, I have both a physical and mental connection to it. And from close concentration, I can hone my skills and find it. And then we can go after it. But not now." She slumps back down. "My magic isn't in a right condition right now, and if I try, it'll let me _know_ it doesn't want to be used."

"In two weeks, you mean?" Musa raises an eyebrow. "Stella, you're exempt from detention for obvious reasons, but we're not. And Flora might kill you if you try to go out on your own."

Flora nods.

"And by then," Techna adds, "the Trix might have infiltrated the ring by then. If we miss a detention, we might receive harsher punishment."

Stella doesn't seem fazed. "After you guys get out of detention, we can all go. And believe me, that ring will still be in _perfect_ shape."

"You think so?" I ask.

"I don't think so!" Stella cries. "I know so!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :(


	6. Breaking and Entering and Other Illegal Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud Tower is scarier than the Winx thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please keep in mind that bloom is a fifteen-year-old girl, not an eloquent shakespearian woman. her dialogue and thoughts are going to be that of a young, teenage girl - well, MOST teenage girls. this is not my natural writing style, but i've come to like it, because it's quite colorful.

**S** tella was discharged from the hospital, and I swore she celebrated. She says it stunk, the food sucked, and she felt cramped in her room. Now that her powers were back to normal and her wounds had healed for the most part, she was permitted to come back to Alfea with us.

But we have detention, so we can't celebrate too much.

I've had detention before, and detention here is no different back home. You still have that same, typical sitting-in-a-classroom-with-nothing-to-do for hours at a time. Griselda's the one keeping an eye on us, and we can't do _anything_. If we speak, an extra hour. If we disturb her, an extra hour. If we do something weird, extra hour. It's why I've taken to sitting there silently and placing my head down. But sleeping is an extra hour, so I can't even do that.

_But_ I also learned itty-bitty details about what my friends do when they're bored.

Flora sorts her leaves. I dunno how she does it, since they all look the same, but she does it.

Musa listens to the music in her head. Not kidding. I think she _actually_ has music in her head. But she'll sit there and listen to nothing.

Techna just stares. I have no idea _what_ she does, but she just...stares. At nothing. No blinking, no movement. If it wasn't for the slight movement of her head every now and again, I would've just thought she had died. Though, she _could_ be sleeping with her eyes open. But I don't think so; Griselda might have caught her.

After our detention was over, only one thing was on our minds: _getting Stella's ring back_. Stella says it's floating around in Cloud Tower, and to help out, I spend some time in the library trying to see if I can find anything on it, and the library might be my new favorite place.

You don't have to go to a staff member working there to bring you to the book you're looking for; there's a search system (called the _Butterfly System_ ) where you can just ask the topic you're looking for, and the books magically come to you. Cool, right?

I end up finding dozens of books with the topic of Stella's ring in it, and I check them out, getting eyed by the strange librarian, Barbatea. I saw her yelling at one of the students because she didn't place one of her books in the right place. And _then_ , I saw her talking to the books as if they were her children. I dunno what she's on, and I'm tempted to ask.

I probably gained a lot of muscle mass carrying those books back into our dorm. Lemme give you a small insight on what the interior looks like.

You have the bottom floor and courtyard, then the staircase to take you to the many hallways, where you enter different areas of the castle.

Every turn you take, you end up on a staircase or an elevator. But then, on days like these, where certain elevators don't work ( _for some God-given reason_!), you have to take the many staircases. The library is on the third, along with a couple classrooms and balcony lunchrooms.

The dorms are on the seventh. And _no elevators_ , _and I'm carrying_ _ **five thousand pound**_ _books_.

By the time I get to the entrance of our apartment, I probably look like a body-builder.

I slam into the door of the room, dropping the sixty pound books onto my body, and I kinda lay there exhausted for a minute before Musa opens the door and doesn't even _pretend_ to care about my pain.

"Haha! Bloom, you look stupid! Where have you been?" She moves out the way a bit, revealing the foyer, where Stella, Flora, and Techna are seated. When Flora sees me and my book babies, she immediately goes over and helps me out. She also gives Musa a bit of a look.

"Bloom, you just left without saying anything!" Flora scolds lightly, taking two of the books on the floor. "After what happened to Stella, we can't take any chances."

"I know," I say, getting up. "But I found stuff on Stella's ring!"

"If you wanted to know stuff about _Stella's_ ring," the girl in question says, turning backwards on her knees on the couch, " _Stella_ is right here." She gestures to herself.

"Correct, but Stella," Techna's voice rings from the sofa across the one Stella's sitting on, "you are notorious for your lack of academic knowledge, so we cannot take any chances."

Stella sticks her tongue out at her and goes back to me. "But what'd you find?"

Musa closes the door behind me as I walk fully into the foyer, sitting on the plush pink couch closest to me, placing one of the books onto the coffee table, opening it, and flipping through until I find where I'm looking for. I point my finger to where it talks about it. " _The Ring of Solaris_..." I read aloud, clearing my throat to begin.

_The Ring of Solaris is one of the most powerful and earliest magical artifacts ever created. Legend has it that along with passing on the great Dragon Fire, the Great Dragon of old breathed life into the suns, and one of the suns dropped a beautiful ring on what would soon become the planet of Solaris. The ring is believed to have the power of seven suns, if used to full capacity, along with being a fine piece of jewelry._ "It got that right!" Stella laughs. _It's the second-most searched for item in the entire Magic Dimension, only a couple points below the Dragon Fire, but unlike the Dragon Fire, the Ring of Solaris is a physical item_.

There's more written, but I stop there.

"That's _awesome_ ," Musa breathes. "No wonder those witches want it."

"I knew all of that already," Stella explains, "because they spent _hours_ explaining it when they presented it to me. In Solaria, the ring is passed down depending on the age and power of the royal. Some royals, like myself, are born with magic, and when I turned sixteen—a little more than a year ago—I was presented the ring in a _great, powerful ceremony_ and whatever, and was told about all the rules when it comes to owning the ring and whatnot."

" _With great power comes great responsibility_ ," Musa quotes, deepening her voice. We had watched a couple Spiderman movies, and that line stuck with her.

"Yeah, that," Stella agrees. "I'm not worried about the ring. It's nearly _impossible_ to get the power from the inside, so it's useless to the witches. But without it, I can't transform, and they might get rid of it. They can't destroy it, but they _can_ hide it to where we can't find it."

"Royals who _don't_ have magic, like your father, can't own the ring, right?" Flora asks.

Stella nods. "Until I was born, the ring kinda just sat in a high-security museum so people can't steal it. It's so important that people who have successfully stolen are _literally_ hunted down and killed on the spot. If we were on Solaria, the witches would have their heads on poles."

"Wow..." This is really a lot to take in. It sounds like something you would hear in a fairytale, not real life. But there's something small that makes me wonder... "What about the Dragon Fire? And what's the Great Dragon?"

"The Dragon Fire was an ancient power that first originated at the beginning of time," Techna explains. "After the sentencing of Valtor to the Omega Dimension four hundred eighty-two years ago, the Dragon Fire was ripped away from him, leaving him for dead. Hundreds of years later, the Fire was found in Dominio—in particular, Princess Daphne of Domino. After its destruction fifteen years ago, the princess was presumed dead, and the power along with it. As for the Great Dragon, there is nothing to it. 'Tis just a legend people tell children during their retirement for the night."

"I wouldn't say that, Techna," Flora says. "You never know. It would make sense for something like the _Great Dragon_ to exist." At my confusion, she grins. "There's a long-running debate about whether or not the Great Dragon existed or not. But from the perspective of someone who believes in the story: eons ago, a powerful figure came out of nowhere and created the Magic Dimension; our world. With it, it created the element of magic, along with multiple, almost _infinite_ , amounts of planets thriving with it. Along with the Great Dragon, the Great Phoenix assisted, creating the creatures that live in the sky, earth, and sea. Once they were done, the Dragon and Phoenix disappeared, leaving behind the powers of the Dragon Fire and Phoenix Fire. No one knows what happened to the Phoenix Fire, but the Dragon Fire is extremely well-known and looked for to this day. And to a dangerous extent."

This is chilling. It's _awesome_. Wish people on Earth had equally awesome lore like people here do.

"Actually, the story is _hella_ longer, but we don't have time to go into the excruciating details of it all," says Musa, flopping onto the ground next to me. "But when it comes to the Phoenix and Dragon Fires, people are _constantly_ debating about which one is more powerful. Some people say Dragon, others say Phoenix. There's no way of telling, now; both of them are presumably extinct."

Feeling the drool touch my chin, I wipe it away, gradually calming down. "Why wasn't I born in the Magic Dimension?"

"Oh, it's not all that once you get used to it." Musa scoffs. "It just depends on where you live. If you're from planets like mine, you're constantly surrounded by music and peculiar creatures. If you're from planets like Stella's or Flora's—the more popular ones—you're around a lot of politics and sun and plants. They kinda function as countries; some are more open to the public, while others are a bit more isolated."

"I wonder if I'll ever be able to visit any of your planets," I say. "Stella's already been to mine."

"Maybe I'll take you home with me for summer vaca!" Stella cries. "But wear sunscreen."

* * *

The next day, something peculiar happened today. I mean, it would seem pretty normal to regular people, but for me just trying to get to class, it was...off.

While I'm roaming around for the remainder of my break, Faragonda shows up out of nowhere.

"Miss Peters?"

I turn my head when I hear it. Headmistress Faragonda is standing there with her hands behind her back, looking a bit mischievous. I don't see her too much. She usually spends a lot more time in her office and quarters more than she does with us. I think the last I saw her in the school publicly was when she officially let me into the school, and _that was nearly three months ago_!

"Um... Yes...?"

"I was just speaking with Ms. Barbatea, in the library. Apparently, you've seemed to be researching ancient artifacts of the Magic Dimension. Is that right?"

"I...am," I say cautiously. Is she going to interrogate me about it? We've avoided questioning from the teachers this far; how am I supposed to lie to the headmistress?

She smiles, calming me down, but only a little. "I'm glad you take such interest in our history. There's so much to unpack from it, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't interested in Earthling history. Being born in a world surrounded by magic loses its _magic_ after a while, don't you think?"

I nod quickly, but I don't think I'll ever get bored of this place.

"I think you're doing exceptionally well adapting, dear," Faragona continues. "If I were you, I would be so flabbergasted at the world around me that I wouldn't have time to keep up with my studies. But you've proven intelligent enough to push aside your wonder and keep an eye on your studies, proving to me that you're truly serious about making this world your home, is that right?"

I straighten up a bit and nod. "Everything's still new to me, don't get me wrong, but learning about myself and this world is my top priority right now, miss."

"I know it is," she replies. "But I warn you, dear, you will never fully understand this world. There's just so much magic and spirit here that sometimes even us citizens have no idea how anything and everything works. You can only take in what you can."

I hate being so quiet, but I simply nod again. Something about Faragonda keeps me quiet. She's so...regal and motherly. And so wise. But every word she says gives me both a feeling of wonder and dread. The latter I dunno why, but it's still there.

As if she read my thoughts, her face softens a bit. "How about you follow me, hm? There's been something I've been meaning to show you." And she begins to walk forward up the stairs to her office, and I scramble to follow behind her.

The path to the headmistress' office gives me the chills. The large stairwell is covered in a soft, blue hue, and the walls itself seem to hum. There are large hangings on the walls, shaped like purple butterfly wings, similar to the pin on my uniform. The Alfea seal. I don't think I've ever been here before. But I imagine going up here thinking I'm in trouble would be hell, because the walls seem to watch us as we pass, and I swear I hear whispering.

Thankfully, we make it to the large, oak doors welcoming us into her office. There's a lot of empty space in the room, and it was very rococo style. A beautiful chandelier hung smack in the middle of the room, and a shiny window covered the whole of the back. In the front was her desk, decorated in gold edges and a plush, red chair. It was the fanciest office I've ever seen, and I didn't even notice the drool hanging out of my mouth until I felt it.

Faragonda laughs at my expression. "Do Earthling headmasters not have offices like these?"

I shake my head. "My public school—and most public schools in the country—can't afford _this_ type. It looks like something you would see in an eighteenth century palace."

"That's where I got the style from." Faragonda sits down in the chair. "I visited Earth for my eighteenth birthday, and me, being the rebel that I was, broke into an extravagant palace with this style. I was so amazed that ever since then, I decorated everything I had with this." She laughs once more. "It's been so long since I was eighteen."

The rococo style was mainly in fashion during the eighteenth century... How old _is_ Faragonda? I try to ask, but the question doesn't escape my lips; _maybe_ it would be seen as rude if I asked....

"I'm sorry for rambling, Miss Peters," she says. "The reason I brought you here is because I want to show you a quick overview of the nature of the Magic Dimension." She dims the lights, snaps her fingers, and suddenly, the room erupts with an orange light, showing a holograph, interactive image of what seems to be the entire Magic Dimension. Planets float around my face, stars twinkle in artificial darkness, small beeps and chimes are audible as well.

"What...is this?" I ask slowly, reaching out and touching one of the planets close to my face. My finger goes straight through it, causing it to appear static-y until I draw my finger back in.

"It's a hologram portraying the entire Magic Dimension. As you can see, it's quite large."

"I can see that..." The whole hologram surrounds the room, and I continue to spin it, lightly touching a couple of them. The title and description of the planet appears on a few of them, and I manage to find Solaria on here, but if I attempted to touch every single planet, I would've graduated by the time we finish.

"You see, Miss Peters, the Magic Dimension thrives off of magic. Every planet has its own history regarding the Dragon and Phoenix and the magic They created." Faragonda stops. "You do know what the Dragon Phoenix were, right?"

I nod. "My roommates told me. It sounds so cool."

She nods in understanding, growing serious. "Magic is such an aspect in the everyday lives of people that life without it...would literally kill us. The magic that you and so many others own is connected to your very soul. Once it's Born inside you, it acts as your heart. If it ever stops flowing, if it ever stops beating, the entire body shuts down, and you will surely die."

I swallow, feeling my heart rate quicken just a little bit.

"You'll learn more about magical history in your classes, but I wanted to talk to you personally about certain things. Magic isn't just a physical element: it's a lifeline. We _need_ it. Even people who aren't Born with the physical power need it. It's just so important to us. It's equivalent to oxygen. When, if you don't mind my belief, the Dragon and Phoenix made this world, they used magic for us as humans to worship. To need. To _thrive_ off of. If magic were to ever disappear, so would the entire Magic Dimension itself.

"But magic is both a blessing and a curse. If a person is given too much power, the world as we know it could be destroyed. There are people who use their powers for good and those who use their power for evil. It would be wise, Miss Peters, if you would learn how to differentiate the two. The power that you have in your very soul is no more powerful than the rest of the girls in your year, but by the end of your years here, I want to know that you have grown into a full-fledged fairy. One for good." The headmistress swallows. "Do you understand?"

I nod quickly, feeling extremely intimidated by all this information.

"Good." Faragonda's somber expression turns to a lighter one. "I'm sorry if I scared you. I just wanted to give a brief explanation of magic and how it works. I have very high hopes for you, Miss Peters. And I would not like for you to prove me wrong."

"Yes, m-ma'am," I stammer. The bell chimes somewhere in the school, reminding me of the class I have to get to. "I gotta go, ma'am. I'm sorry."

"No, there's no need to apologize." Faragonda whisks away the hologram and turns the light back on. "If you ever need anything, I'm always here. Most of the time," she adds as an afterthought.

I nod, heading out, when I question pops in my head. One that's been bugging me for the longest time.

"Ms....?" I ask slowly.

Faragonda raises an eyebrow, allowing me to continue. "How did... How did this happen? I mean, I grew up in an _Earth_ family. Earth doesn't have any magic dwellers. How did I have magic?"

Faragonda doesn't respond for a moment, then opens her mouth to speak. "Have you...ever heard of the last princess of Domino, Daphne?"

I wrack my brain. I swear I've heard that... _Oh, wait_! When we were talking about the Dragon Fire, we mentioned her! But why is he relevant? "Yeah. The Dragon Fire died out with her. Why?"

"Have you ever seen a woman," Faragonda asks carefully, "with blonde hair, blue eyes, and wearing a mask? In your dreams, perhaps?"

I'm a bit weirded out, now. I shake my head.

"Oh." She looks like she wants to ask more, but she seems to push down the question. "Miss Peters, I have no idea why you have magic, but I believe it will soon become apparent to all of us. Soon."

What's that supposed to mean? I exit the office, walking down the many staircases and ignoring the creepiness from before.

Faragonda knows why I have these powers, but she's just not telling me. And I think it has something to do with Princess Daphne.

* * *

"We're going to do _what now_?"

We're gathered in the foyer again, this time discussing how we're going to get Stella's ring back, and we have a plan in mind, but Stella doesn't seem to enjoy it.

"Nuh uh, no way!" Stella crosses her arms. "Do I _look_ like I'm going to go into a smelly tunnel? I don't have an outfit ready for that!"

"Stella, we went into a deadly swamp," Musa points out. "I think we can handle a tunnel."

"Yeah, but I've never been _in_ one. And from images, they look smelly and dirty and _ew_."

"Of course they're going to be dirty, Stella," Flora says. "Tunnels can't be cleaned naturally. But it's not like they're neglected. The tunnels are just waves to get around the three schools in case of an emergency."

"And I assume you _want_ your ring back, right?" I ask.

Stella groans. "I _do_. But why do I have to constantly be placed in _not-so-ideal_ situations?"

"Because, Stella." Musa wraps her arm around Stella's neck. "You're a princess with an important magic artifact. Did you expect things to be peachy?"

"Well, _no_ , but—"

"Then, you have your answer."

Stella sticks her tongue out, removing herself from Musa's grip and moving to sit next to me. "Alright, fine. We're going to travel through the—" she gags "— _tunnels_. But how are we going to get through there? I don't think we can get special permission to sneak through schools."

"Simple." I forgot Techna was there. She's so quiet sometimes. "We _do not_."

"Yep." Musa stands up and stretches. "We're gonna sneak out. Wear all black and ninja sneak around the school." I also taught her about ninjas. _What_? I'm learning about _their_ world, I'm returning the favor. "You know where the tunnels are, right, Bloom?"

I nod, then stop short. "Well, a little bit. In my defense, I only found the tunnels when I was about to murder someone for a pair of scissors during the welcoming dance, so...."

"Do not worry," says Techna. "I have downloaded a visual map of the entire school. We do not have to blindly roam around searching for the tunnels. I know where it is."

Flora doesn't seem too sure about this. "Do we have to _sneak_ there? We're still in trouble from sneaking to the _Black Lagoon_ not too long ago. If we do something like this, we could be in even bigger trouble."

"We won't, because we'll be smarter this time," Musa says, but honestly, I'm thinking what Flora's thinking. "We'll sneak there around midnight and return around four AM. People are still asleep during that time. We'll be _fine_."

"But have you forgotten one important person?" I ask. I raise my eyebrows for them to answer, but all of them look confused. "Griselda! The lady has eyes _everywhere_! How are we supposed to get past her? A couple of the students say that she's up around three or four o'clock."

"Can confirm," Stella cuts in. "I've seen her. And if you catch her before her morning coffee..." She whistles. "Your body is never found."

"It's not just Griselda!" Flora cries. "This is serious. If any of the teachers catch us, we're in _huge_ trouble. This could end up on our personal record or something. And do you know how dangerous Cloud Tower is? If one of the witches finds us... Or maybe the Trix... Or even if one of _their_ teachers catches us, we might be even deader."

"Deader is not a word," Techna deadpans.

I chew my lip. I didn't think about that. But we have to get Stella's ring back. I think back to Faragonda's conversation to me about the importance of magic. Who _knows_ what the Trix will do to it? I dunno if her ring is tied to her magic essence or not, but if it is, if something bad happens to it, it could negatively affect Stella, and those witches are powerful. Stella might say it's hard to steal the power from inside, but anything's possible in this world. "We have to try. We can't give in to fear." I swallow. "Faragonda taught me something important today. Something about magic and its connection to one's soul. Even if it's just a physical object, that ring means something to Stella spiritually. We need to get it back, even if we're scared."

Flora looks at me curiously, but Stella pats me on the back. "You're warming up to the Magic Dimension already. But seriously." She stretches a bit. "It's getting tiring having to come up with new excuses for why I can't participate in combat classes. Griselda takes pure _joy_ in piling up my assignments."

"Alrighty then." Musa cracks her knuckles. "So it's settled. We're going to go to Cloud Tower. Dead of night. If we're lucky, we return before Griselda hour."

"And I'll get my ring back!" Stella strokes her left ring finger. "It feels so lonely without the pretty darling. My hand feels naked!"

* * *

The tunnels are colder than I remember.

I mean, I could be saying that because I didn't _actually_ walk down there, but I swore, it gave off a warmer vibe than this.

We had managed to sneak through the hallways around midnight, disabling a couple cameras ("If I am caught and they revoke my gadgets, I am holding all of you personally responsible," says Techna, dead serious), all while looking like bootleg ninjas trying to creep through this huge school. Fortunately, we made it to the entrance to the tunnels without getting caught and headed into the freezing passageway.

And now we're here, walking through it, some of the girls holding onto me for warmth. Apparently, I give off a warm vibe when I'm in environments like this, so Musa and Flora hold onto both my arms to keep warm. We're using Stella for light, because _whoo glowing!_

"I think I just saw a rat," Stella says, her voice cracking. " _Why_ couldn't they have cleaned this place?"

"Because these are only used for emergencies, Stella, dear," Techna explains a bit sarcastically. "There would be no point in—as you say— _glamming_ the tunnels."

"At least it would be a nice decoration." Musa shivers against me. "When was the last time these were used?"

"During the Dragon and Phoenix Wars," Flora answers, tightening her grip on my arm. "The entirety of Magix went on lockdown when it was believed the Ancestral Witches would attack here next."

"You people keep referencing Dragon and Phoenix Wars, and I have yet to actually know what that is," I say, stepping over a muddy puddle.

"Would you like the simple version or the Techna version?" Musa asks.

"Uh... What's the Techna version?"

I can practically see Techna's eye twitch, even from our three feet distance. "The _Techna Version_ of things is an explanation of something and anything in prodigious detail."

Whatever that means. "Uh, we're a bit short on time, so maybe the simple version."

"Alright, well, basically—" But Musa's cut off before she can begin from the happy cheer from Stella. " _Guys, I see light! We're out_!"

We speed a bit, trying to catch up with the overenthusiastic Stella. She walks up a bunch of small steps, coming to a large, oddly-shaped door similar to the one I saw the first time. She slowly opens the door, her face wrinkling in discomfort. She turns her head towards us. "Yep. We're at Cloud Tower."

We head up there, closing the door behind us. We've found ourselves in a weird hallway, dark and gloomy. It's such a huge contrast to the bright and happy feel of Alfea hallways. It's so purple and black, with candles on the walls holding green fire. There's such a chill in the air that it even freezes me a bit, even though I'm pretty warm right now. I can hear the tiny sounds of bats on the side of the wall, freaking me out just a little bit. It reminds me of Hogwarts. Just scarier and gloomier.

"I feel so out-of-place here," Musa says shivering.

"I think if the witches saw our place, they would say the same thing." Flora looks up to the bats hovering in the corner, not looking too fazed. "Can't believe they could afford bats here? Isn't that a danger hazard?"

"I dunno," says Stella, "but I'm scared some severed head is going to pop out of nowhere in this place. Let's just go looking for my ring." She approaches Techna. "Tec, you know where the dorms are?"

"It's in the dormitory?" I ask. "Huh. Kinda surprised with that location. For third year, dangerous witches, they sure didn't make it hard to track them down."

Stella nods. "I can tell they've also tried to mess with it, too. The Light Crystal is still intact, so we're all good."

"The dormitories are one floor above us." Techna points up to the ceiling. "The only danger we need to be cautious of is the creatures roaming past and night witches. 'Tis not a rule that a student must be in her quarters at a certain time like we have. Witches thrive on the moon, so 'tis very common for a witch—especially teenage ones—to wander around by moonlight. Some witches are so dependent on the nighttime that they attend nightly courses instead of day. The only rule regarding the night rambling is that they cannot leave campus. That is where they place strict rules upon."

"A lot of stuff I am never going to remember," I mumble, but it's interesting nonetheless.

"I'll listen out for any unwanted creatures of random witches moving around." Musa taps her right ear. "Being the fairy of sound comes with a couple perks."

We begin to walk through the damp, chilling hallways, keeping an eye out for any movement. We don't see any witches or professors walking about, but we do see a couple spiders crawl up on the wall with [tape?] pressed onto their backs with names on them. I assume they're class pets that are just allowed to roam around willy-nilly.

We head up the velvet steps, the color slightly out-of-place with the somber look of the school. But really, if you ignore the weird pets, the night stalking, and the general creepiness of Cloud Tower, it really isn't too different from Alfea. From the signs explaining where everything is, I can tell that the courses are basically the same, except with a witchy goodness.

The dorms are where things are a bit tense. We have to be extremely careful since we don't wanna (possibly) wake anyone up. Stella goes ahead, her ring tracking skills going off the charts. All the doors to the rooms are a bit ominous, with skull handles of which stare at you as you pass. The wonder of Cloud Tower is starting to wane, as I'm getting a _bit more antsy_ the longer we spend here.

" _Here it is_ ," Stella whispers, pointing to one of the southern doors. There's a large _666_ written on the wall, which is the room number. This _cannot_ be a coincidence.

But it is, since room 665 is across from us.

"Musa, is anyone in there?" asks Flora.

Musa stares at the door for a moment, then turns back to us. "No. It's empty. The Trix might be out night stalking."

"Is it unlocked?" I ask.

Techna twists the knob, and it's unlocked, which seems to confuse her. "Well... It's unlocked, but that would be odd... What kind of third year witch simply leaves their room unlocked for anyone to enter? I am beginning to sense there is more to it than we think."

"Well, I sense that my darling ring is in here, so..." Stella opens the door, revealing a very...bland room.

Okay, I'm only saying that because compared to the dorms back at Alfea, these feel like reform school dorms. There's both black and purple wallpapers, with green fire emitting from the candles on the wall. There is a bat chandelier overheard, and on the sides are completely identical beds with murky green sheets. On the shelves are a bunch of potions, spells, and other witch things. You know, I kinda expected the Trix to have a whole-*ss cult in here, with pentagrams and ram heads and whatever. Not normal stuff.

Or maybe they do, and they just make it look like this just in case people like us walk in.

"How witchy," Musa deadpans.

"It's so dead and cold in here," Flora whispers, shivering. She catches sight of a dead, drooping plant close to the window. "Oh, you poor dear." She kneels down next to it, sadly stroking the leaves.

"The ring is definitely in here. And I might just give them the number of my interior designer." Stella places her hands on her hips, walking towards the middle of the room and looking around.

We begin searching.

I stand close to the drawers, going through them to see if there's any sign of anything suspicious. Musa stands close to the door to tell us if people are approaching. So far, the only people who have come by are the regular night witches. We have no plan if we get caught, however, so we're all hoping we don't. But anyway, there's nothing in the drawers. Except for an entire drawer filled with gel. Stormy, most likely.

Stella's conjured up a mask and gloves as she searches close to the trash can ("It smells like someone died over here!" She slowly turns her head towards us in realization. "Someone probably did!"). There's nothing over there, either, except for hair and broken nails. (" _Is that blood_?" Musa asks, staring in both horror and astonishment from her post towards the door.)

Flora's searching by the plant bed. She's helping both us and the poor plant that did not deserve to suffer. But she hasn't found anything either, and now her hands are covered in dirt and fertilizer. ("As compensation for ransacking their dorm, I'm reviving the plant and giving it a good spell. It might dispel their anger just a bit when they return.")

Like I said, Musa is by the door. She's also started playing with a weird stick thing. Everytime she hears someone by the door, she hushes up harshly and makes us all immediately stop. And nine-out-of-ten, it's usually just someone walking past. But Musa's doing her job, I guess. ("Is this like a stress toy or something?" Musa asks, genuinely confused, tossing the stick-thing up and down in her hand. "What is the actual purpose of this thing?" And then, suddenly, spikes appear on the sides, showing its purpose and causing Musa to nearly scream in pain as she nurses her bleeding fingers with her hands.)

And Techna's by the nightstands. There's nothing over there either except spare candles and...toys? ("I would have never assumed the witches enjoyed entertainment such as miniature people." She tugs at the arms, and a scream above causes her to throw it and scream, and a thud is heard upstairs. She clears her throat, going a bit pink. "Now I understand the purpose of the doll.")

"I found it!" Stella cries, straightening up from her post by the trash can. She takes off her mask and caresses the shiny ring. "It's a bit scratched, but that can be fixed. Did you miss me, little one?"

"Alright, that means we can leave right?" I ask, looking up. "I think that bat's out to get me." And I mean it. One of the bats is staring right at me.

"It's all clear, right, Musa?" Flora asks.

Musa nods. "Seems like the witches are all hanging out either downstairs or upstairs. There doesn't seem to be anyone hanging around here. Not surprising; this area seems depressing as hell."

"Well, now that I have my ring back, we can shed some _light_ on this situation." Stella laughs, and I can't help but laugh with her. What? It was hilariously corny!

She opens the door, letting us all out of the room. We sneak the same way we came in, down the steps, through the hallways with the class pets, and towards the slanted door. Techna steps in first, trying to pull it open, but it refuses to budge. She tugs on it harder, and the only thing she manages to do is _pull off the whole f*cking doorknob_.

"Well, that's just perfect!" Musa cries.

"Do not blame this on me!" Techna hisses. "No matter what I did, it refused to open, and there was no lock on the door when we first arrived."

"Well, what do we do then?" I ask. "Are we just trapped in Cloud Tower?"

"I hope not!" Stella exclaims. "This place gives me the creeps."

Flora thinks for a moment. "There has to be more than one passage through this area. Places like these always do. Techna, is there anything on your map."

Techna stares at nothing for a bit, then suddenly, a hologram of the entirety of Cloud Tower appears in front of us, seeming to come from her purple eye.

"That's awesome." Musa smiles, looking down at the diagram.

"I figured it would be smarter if I projected what I was seeing towards you; I would have appeared nonsensical if I had not."

It kinda reminds me of what Faragonda showed me back at Alfea. I've said this before, but _come on, Earth, keep up_!

"There seems to be an area over here—" she points at one place on the map—"that should give us a passage out. And the entrance seems to be..." She walks over past the staircase, looking around before venturing out. "Over here." She points at a large, green door with a crooked sign. _The Alchemic Archives_.

"Huh," Stella breathes, as we walk into the _Alchemic Archive_ room (Techna stays behind a bit to straighten up the sign). "Why am I not surprised we hit a road bump on this mission?"

"I dunno," says Musa. "Maybe it's because nothing has been going completely smoothly since we first arrived?"

"Trouble seems to find us easily," I add. "As if we're the main characters in _anything_. Trouble _loves_ main characters."

"I think we should be moving a bit quicker now," Mama Flora says, from her place in the archives. "We can't just dawdle. Remember: the witches like to roam around at night."

"Oh, right!" Musa realizes. "Nocturnal b*tches."

We move into the room, quietly closing the door behind us.

It's a very...bland room. Unlike the other room with the witchy colors and whatnot, this room is completely _devoid_ of anything. It kinda feels like an expanded storage closet, except with books.

"Maybe I should give _Griffin_ the number of my interior decorator," Stella says, thinking the same thing as I am. "It's so boring here!"

"The books aren't, though." Musa picks up a book from the metal shelf _thing_ and begins to flip through it. "You see this?" She shows us the book cover. _101 Poisons to Kill Your Relatives_. That's a bit precise. "I don't think this is legal."

"I don't think we should be in here," Flora suggests. "From the looks of things, this whole room shouldn't exist. We're not to mess with these things. Let's go."

"Oh, come on, Flo." Musa slams the new book she had in her hands: _The End of Society by Project 01101101 01110101 01110010 01100100 01100101 01110010_. Way too many letters. "This place seems cool. Besides, we'll be done soon. How many illegal books do you see in schools?"

"I am with Flora on this one," says Techna. "There is something completely skeptical about the entirety of this trip, and there is no change here."

But there's no response. Musa and Stella are already looking at the disorganized books, and I can't stop the curiosity from getting the better of me, and I look around with them.

This place is illegal as hell, and I don't even have to wonder why some of the stuff in here is illegal. There's actually _still beating hearts_ in jars close to the window, along with a drawer with the label _spare body parts_ , and I don't think they're fake. The books are on certain topics like artificial magic transformation, most evil leaders in the history of the Magic Dimension, and murder. A lot of murder.

But I think what put the icing on the cake was the book I found close to the exit.

_The Whispering Book_ , it called itself, and it actually whispered. I listen closely to what they're saying. _Ask us. An answer, you shall receive. Ask us. An answer, you shall receive. Ask us. Ask us._ _ **Ask us**_. And I kinda want to. I went to open it to see what it did, but before I did, I felt a hand on my wrist.

"Bloom, I advise you do not do that."

I don't even have to look up to know who it is. The eloquence and emotionless tone of us tells me all I need to know. "And why not?"

"I understand you must have an innumerable amount of questions, but seeking answers from a book which—might I add—is located in a not-so-legal area does not seem like the most intelligent decision."

"I figured you'd say something like that." I sigh. "I want to ask it a question. Just one."

"It matters not how many questions you shall ask it, this book is not to be trusted."

"And you know that because you've used it before?"

Techna doesn't falter. "No matter what question you ask it, it will not give you the answer you are looking for. _This_ is not to be trusted, and I advise we get out of here."

" _We_ are not doing anything," I hiss. "I'm asking it _one_ question, and it honestly seems like it really _wants_ me to ask it." _**ASK US**_. It's gotten really needy. "I'll ask it something simple. That way, no one gets hurt. Are you satisfied?"

"No. No, I am not."

"Oh, well." I clear my throat, trying to calm down my slowly heating blood. "Show me Princess Daphne!" I call, loud and clear, and I reach to open it, but the minute I do, a grubby, bloody hand comes shooting from the cover of the book, grabbing onto my wrist, causing me to scream and struggle to get it out of my grip.

The other girls are alerted by this and come to my aid, hitting it with a couple spells, causing it to slink back into the cover, and I rub my now aching hand, feeling embarrassed and a bit stupid. Curiosity killed Bloom, I guess.

Footsteps above alert us.

"We should get out of here!" Flora cries. "If we stay in here any longer, we'll be caught!"

We go towards the door, but... Hm. There's no door. I swore there was one before. And both doors are gone: the entrance and the exit.

"Didn't there used to be a door here?" Musa asks.

"Not anymore, there's not!" Stella whines. "Are we trapped in Cloud Tower _forever_ , now?"

"No." Techna sighs, beginning to power up a spell in her left hand. "Be warned: this shall be loud, and we most definitely shall be caught." After a bit, she launches the spell at the wall, causing a loud blast and the room to start rumbling. Musa covers her ears in pain.

After the smoke had cleared, the wall was unscathed, and I swore I heard Techna curse under her breath.

"Well, what are we gonna do now?" Stella asks. "Nothing happened, and now the witches are gonna attack us with broomsticks once they figure out where the noise came from."

"This seems like a tough door," I explain. "I don't think only one of us can take it down ourselves. Is there a way we can combine our powers or something?"

"Convergence," Flora replies. "But that's a second year thing. There's no way we'd be able to pull it off now."

"Maybe not complete Convergence. Maybe just hitting the wall at one time?" Musa suggests.

"That sounds like it could work," I say.

"Well, we should hurry up and do it. I can hear the witches cackling close by right now!" Stella cries, transforming suddenly into her fairy form. We all do the same (it took me forever to get the hang of it, but it's not as hard as you'd think. You just tap into her magical source and let it do its thing. It... It's easier than it sounds), conjuring up our best spells (mine, being quite simple; just a larger than normal fireball), charging them up, and shooting them straight at the wall, exploding the room in red, yellow, pink, purple, and green and making the entire castle shake violently. I can practically hear the commotion from around the place, alerting us. Fortunately, the wall had been destroyed from the force of the blast, so we lift our wings and fly out of the room and down the long, right hallway.

After a long while of flying through the place, keeping an eye on Techna's map to figure out the directions, and taking lefts and rights and forwards, we begin to realize something's not right here.

"Haven't we been this way," Stella realizes, "twelve times already?"

"Negative." Techna softly lands. "These hallways may look identical, but there are subtle changes. We have not been this way." She stares at her hologram and cocks an eyebrow after a bit. "Well, this is peculiar."

"What is?" I ask, landing next to her.

"Our location is not even located on the map." She points to the dot on the hologram, which I assume is us. "See? 'Tis underneath the school, apparently."

"So we're underground?" Musa questions.

"Does not seem like it. There is nothing underneath here. Our location is just simply _floating_ around underneath."

"So are we just stuck here? _Forever_?" Stella asks, panicked.

"Possibly," Techna replies nonchalantly.

"Maybe not," Flora cuts in, trying to calm down the slowly panicking Stella. "It's not like we're flying in circles. According to Techna, this is a new area. If we continue twisting and turning, we might get somewhere."

"Yeah, maybe in thirty years!" I point out.

Suddenly, Musa harshly shushes us, hearing something we don't. After a bit, something becomes audible.

Tiny pitter-pattering. Small clicking sounds. And they grew closer and closer until....

Spiders. Hundreds of them. At every exit. And they were coming this way. But here's the thing. I'm usually not _too_ scared of spiders. I mean, I don't like them, nor do I hate them. But these spiders are f*cking _huge_. I wish I could show you a picture of them, but they were at least the size of a beach ball or something, with eight legs on each of them.

"Oh, hell no!" Stella exclaims.

"What are those things?" I ask, steadily growing even more panicked. "Giant spiders."

"Technically yes," Flora answers. "Except they're not. They're Magnum Spiders. They're prominent in more exotic realms. I dunno how Cloud Tower is just harboring dangerous animals such as these."

"Maybe it's because this place isn't even part of Cloud Tower, according to Techna's map," I reply, still eyeing the creepy bugs growing nearer and nearer towards us.

"Who _cares_ whether or not Griffin just has them lying around?" Stella exclaims. "Let's get out here! One of them is making eyes at me!"

We take flight once more, flying above the Magnums (but like spiders, they can climb walls!), moving left and right and forward and repeat. Like we had when we first got stuck down here. But it proved to be to no avail. The Magnums had started attacking from their places on the walls and on the ceiling. I had to constantly watch my back for any spiders who are looking to try to bite out of my wings. After our fairy dust was nearly depleted (yes, fairy dust. It fuels our wings) and we were dizzy from moving in what seemed like circles, we landed at a non-Magnum area on the ground, panting as if we just ran a mile.

"Please don't tell me we've been moving in circles," I tell Techna, after I've caught my breath.

"Do not despair, we have not," she replies. "Despite what it seems, we have made much more progress. Upcoming, there is what seems to be an exit. If we fly fast enough, we might be able to escape."

"We can't possibly fly anymore!" Flora cries, struggling to raise back into the sky. "We've spent so much time trying to escape the spiders, we didn't even pay attention to our fairy dust levels."

"Does that mean we're going to have to outrun _that_?" Stella nearly shrieks, pointing at something behind us. And I nearly do the same once I see what she's pointing at.

The spiders have somehow merged into one monster. One big-*ss monster with spider claws covering its long, chunky body. Its eyes were barely even visible; they were just two black dots with long, curved mandibles threatening to strike us. It was a weird orange color, with black spots covering its middle. Just writing this is making me sick. Just use your imagination. All in all, it was absolutely horrifying, and it inches closer and closer to us.

"Well, exercise never hurt anybody!" Musa cries, beginning to sprint. " _Run_!"

And so we did. And I'm going to ask my mom to tell Coach Goodman that her torture PE excercies really helped. Because of her I'm pretty in shape and can run quite quickly when I'm being chased alongside my fairy friends. The disgusting spider monster can run, too, unfortunately, just not as fast. It roars, charging towards us as we run as quickly as we can. We take a left turn, nearly sliding the wrong way, and come to a large door.

"Is this the exit?" I ask, growing extremely tired. "Or is this the way we came?"

"The exit," Techna explains.

But before we can pry the door open, the monster comes stomping our way, raising its spider-like legs and pincers.

"Well, it was nice knowing you guys." Stella gulps. "Unfortunately, none of my riches are going to any of you; I haven't updated my will."

"Wait!" Flora cries, gaining an idea. "There's no need to be saying our goodbyes just yet." She puts her arms out, closing her eyes. At first, it seems as if nothing is happening until I see parts of vines and branches begin to seep through the wall.

"How did you do that?" I ask. "Don't plants need to be there for you to do actual magic?"

"There's nature all around us," Flora explains. "It's easier than it looks. And besides, Palladium's _Naturagulum_ Process is quite handy if you actually study it."

"Sorry, Flo, not a tree-hugger," Musa chimes in, laughing a bit.

The huge plants stay still on the wall for a moment, and suddenly, Flora violently flicks her wrist, and the plants shoot outwards, impaling the monster from a lot of angles and covering a few of us in what seems to be spider blood.

"Really, Flora?" Stella asks. "Was there no other way you could've killed it?"

Flora wipes the blood off her face, smiling brightly at Stella. "Nothing I could've done would've gotten rid of the monster completely." She looks back at the impaled corpse of the spider monster. "I feel kind of bad for it. It was just following its instincts."

"Well, my current instinct is to get the hell out of here." Stella attempts to push the door behind us open, but to no avail. "Of course it would be locked. Everything _has_ to happen! Could this get any—" Techna slams herself against the door, opening it. "Worse."

"'Tis open now." Techna rolls her shoulder a couple times, trying to get it back into place.

We walked into the newly opened room, seeing how abandoned and empty it was. Really, it was _extremely_ empty, just with a couple cobwebs in the small corners of the ceiling. And there was no other door in sight. Not even a window.

My headache is slowly growing. "Techna, are we lost?"

Techna shakes her head. "This is supposedly where the exit is located."

"Well, evidently there is nothing here," Musa deadpans.

Small clicking alerts us once again, and in the corner of my eye, another Magnum spider is approaching us. Just one, but it's enough to make me snap and shoot more-powerful-than-I-thought magic at it. It immediately erupts into flames, slowly dying underneath the heat. But what I don't notice, however, is the fact that this room is more flammable than I thought, for the carpet beneath our shoes begins to catch fire.

"Um..." I laugh nervously. "I think I did something wrong."

I really _did_ do something wrong. The fire begins to swallow the carpet whole, slowly creeping onto the wall behind me, immediately heating up this area.

"We need to get out of here! again!" Flora cries, moving towards the door, but to our dismay, the door is completely locked, and no matter how many body slams we give it, it won't budge.

The fire is _really_ bad. I can practically taste the smoke as it fills my lungs. It doesn't affect me too much, but the other girls are another story.

They can't breathe. As the fire rapidly surrounds us, I can practically see the fire scorch their skin and block their airways. And there's no way out, and the guilt seeps through me.

I try to look for alternate ways to get out of here. Maybe a secret passage of some sort, but all the possible areas I can try to find a way out from are blocked off from the fires. It may not hurt me like the others, but it still would hurt _tremendously_ if I tried to walk through it.

The girls are talking, but I can't hear anything. Nothing at all. The world seems to zero in on me. I stare at nothing; a blank wall. I don't try to pull myself out of what's happening. My brain feels hollow, thoughtless. The fire is non-existent. There is nothing. Just me...and a woman.

The woman is beautiful, dressed in a pure white gown touching the floor, with golden hair reaching her lower back, and mesmerizing golden eyes. But the thing that catches my eye is the masquerade mask on her face. She simply stares at me, walking off. The world begins to appear again. The girls have nearly succumbed to the fire, but everything is still inaudible. The woman walks straight through the fire, and I follow her. She moves over a nearly destroyed drawer on the side, revealing what seems like an emergency exit slide. She gestures to it, and I can finally find words. "Thank—" But before I can finish it, the woman is gone, and all my senses return, and now I can feel the fire burning my ankles and the harsh coughing of my friends.

"Hey, Bloom, found a way out!" Flora cries, helping Musa up.

"How did you know something was over there?" asks Stella, walking over.

"I...didn't," I answer, still a bit dazed. But I can think about it right now. I look down into the slide tunnel and am a bit skeptical about the fact that I can't see completely down, but as long as we were out of this burning room. "Let's go; before we become literal fairy _dust_."

I throw myself into the slide, tumbling unceremoniously onto a damp, cold area that very much seems like—

Stella comes barreling down next, her boot colliding with my forehead, causing stars to appear in my face and probably giving me a mini concussion.

"Oops." Stella laughs nervously. "Didn't mean to do that. Hehe." But she's next. Flora crashes into her back, with Musa right behind her. And then, finally, Techna, who faceplants onto the rocky ground.

Oh, well. At least we're all alive.

* * *

Second degree burns. They hurt.

But we preserve nonetheless, travelling through the tunnels. I just want to take a nap.

"Remind me to never go into Cloud Tower _ever_ again," Musa says, and I whole-heartedly agree with her.

"It was all worth it, though!" Stella smiles, brandishing her ring. "I might have to disinfect it; the witches probably put all their witchy badness onto it."

"I'm just surprised we didn't get caught by the witches. Didn't you hear how much noise there was?" Flora observes.

"My question," Techna adds, "is how exactly an entirely different area was located in Cloud Tower that my map did not pick up on."

"The only thing I'm concerned about," I say, "is getting home. This was _enough_ adventure for one day."

"You know, if we're on the subject of questions," Musa says suddenly, "I have one, too. Bloom, what the hell happened to you back there?"

"Huh?"

"Yeah!" Stella replies. "When we were nearly cooked alive. You looked all dead inside and found an escape route. Almost like in a trance. How did you do it?"

I scratch my head, trying to think of the answer, when the image of the woman appears in front of my face mentally. "I dunno what happened," I explain truthfully. "Everything kinda just...stopped. And then, there was this lady, and she showed me the way out."

"Like a ghost?" Flora wonders.

"I don't think so. I mean, I dunno. She seemed...real, but _not_ at the same time." I groan. "It's all too confusing, and I don't want to hurt my brain any more than I have to."

"Maybe she _was_ a ghost," Musa suggests. "From the way Cloud Tower is set up, you would think so. Who _knows_ how many have died in that dangerous building?"

"Too many," I answer laughing.

* * *

It's four in the morning by the time we get back.

I'm so tired I could sleep on the floor.

These burns will heal themselves, I'm sure. As long as I get some precious sleep in.

We head back into our dorm rooms, sitting huddled together in the foyer.

" _What are we gonna do_?" I whisper. " _If people see us with these injuries, they're gonna wonder what happened, and we won't have an explanation to give them._ "

" _Relax_!" Stella assures me. " _We can just tell people we had a cooking accident_."

" _That resulted in_ _ **all**_ _of us getting hurt_?" Musa says. " _That doesn't make sense._ "

" _Maybe you could simply turn yourselves to the professors_ ," suggests a new voice, one that isn't familiar, but I'm too sleep-deprived to notice who it is, even when I turn my head to address her.

" _No_ , _that's the last thing we wanna do_ ," I say, and turn my head back towards the girls, but they're all staring either at me or this new person.

" _Ahem_." Flora sheepishly points to the mystery person, and I turn my head, forcing my tired-*ss brain to cooperate.

It's Griselda, and she's giving us an evil grin. How long has she been there?

"I think there's a certain headmistress who would like to speak with the five of you. Come along, girls." Griselda stands up from her place, walking off, seeming to want us to follow her.

Ah, sh*t.

* * *

Being lectured by Griselda is one thing. Being lectured by Faragonda is another.

She's one of those people who're not angry with you when you mess up, just disappointed, and that's _worse_. I feel like I want to melt as she speaks.

Apparently, some of the students at Cloud Tower had seen some fairies walking around their school and informed one of the teachers, who told Headmistress Griffin, who told Faragonda. And now, here we are, and Faragonda is _greatly_ expressing how disappointed she is.

"Girls," she says softly, calming down a bit. "I must say, you are my most gifted group of students I've seen in all my years of teaching—which is quite a bit. But you're also my most _troublesome_. You've continuously broken the rules and wreaked havoc upon the people around you, and it's only October. Whatever I shall I do with you? What compelled you to sneak out _this_ time?"

"The witches stole Stella's ring," I explain. "We went there to get it back, and we're lucky we didn't get caught by _them_."

"Witches?" Griselda asks. "Be more specific."

"Icy, Darcy, and Stormy," Flora answers ashamedly. "They've been after us—Stella, specifically—since the beginning of the year."

"And why didn't you inform any of us about this?" Faragonda asks.

None of us respond. Even if we honestly explained why, it would be dumb. It was just between us and the witches. If we couldn't even take them on, what's the point in being here?

"Headmistress, if I may," Griselda chimes in. "This is the third time something like this has happened. We've already given them a long detention, and I don't think it's working. I've come up with a special punishment for them—if only you'd let me try it."

"Whoa, you're gonna suspend us?" Musa nearly shrieks. "Come on! It wasn't like we went to Cloud Tower just for the hell of it!"

"Calm down, Miss Harmonica." Faragonda makes a calming gesture with her hands. "We're not going to suspend you. But we _are_ going to have to punish you. Go on ahead, Griselda."

Griselda seems overjoyed to be giving us a new punishment. "Because of your consistent breaking of the rules and obvious inoperative detentions, I have especially put together your punishment. You five you have your powers stripped from you and forced to clean the entire school first thing tomorrow."

My heart dropped right to my stomach. They could do that? I could tell this was no normal punishment as the other girls were looking as bewildered as me.

"Wait, you're allowed to do that?" I ask, slightly panicking.

"Yes, Miss Peters. We are." Faragonda intertwines her fingers and leans on her desk. "To calm your alarm, it is a _temporary_ blocking of your powers. Your magic will still be there, but it will be locked in your Soul until Griselda or I revoke it." She turns her head towards Griselda. "Go ahead."

Griselda steps towards us, raising her hands out. "This won't hurt a bit."

Nothing seems to happen, even though it's evident Griselda is using magic. But I know she's doing something to all of us. It takes a bit, but Griselda steps back, looking a bit tired, but satisfied. And that's when I feel it. It feels like...nothing. Dry, empty nothingness. As if something was missing in my body.

"Is it done?" Faragonda asks. Griselda nods, and she turns back to us. "Go on, then, girls. Griselda will call upon you early in the morning tomorrow."

We turn back out of the office, down the creepy passage, and I feel like I did before this whole thing happened.

Powerless and clueless of the world beyond.

* * *

The girls are not used to having no powers.

Stella tried numerous times to clean her room by conjuring her magic, and when it didn't work, she nearly collapsed in a puddle of tears.

One of Flora's plants was dying, so she tried to give it a magical boost. The catch: she had no powers, so she simply put it in front of the window and gave it some water, but now it'll take it longer than she wants to revive it.

Musa just slept for the rest of the night (as did I).

Techna nearly electrocuted herself trying to repair some broken wires, something she would've done with magic, but she had to pull out actual tools (which she nearly killed herself trying to use).

And me? After sleeping for eight hours, I kinda just sat around and studied. I didn't have such a hard time dealing with the loss of my powers. For fifteen years of my life, I didn't use them. But it still felt odd. I was just getting used to my powers, and now they're gone. But I don't feel _too_ broken up over it. It's only temporary anyway. (Maybe I should tell Stella that. I can hear her wailing over here.)

But you know what I _am_ broken up over?

_**Detention with Griselda**_!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :P


	7. Janitors Have It Rough

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In a magical world where fairies and dragons exist, cleaning normally is still an option.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i like this chapter.

**G** riselda has no mercy. 

At exactly four in the morning, Griselda chimes her Bell of Torture, yelling for us to wake up. 

“ _ Your day is just beginning, ladies _ !  _ It’s time to get started _ !”

Musa drags her pillow from her room into the foyer where Griselda stands. “It’s not even dawn…” she groans, burying her face into the pillow. “Can’t we have five more minutes?”

“Nope!” Griselda grins. “This school is bigger than you think, and if we even waste a little bit of time, you won’t be finished, and I would hope for you all to be finished in at least twenty-four hours. Wake yourselves up. If you can, find the others and bring them here.”

I nearly fall back asleep trying to grab both Flora and Techna into the foyer. Musa falls asleep standing up, but one ring of Griselda’s bell, and she snaps right awake, mumbling a few inaudible words under her breath.

I’m too tired to do a headcount, but Griselda seems to be more on it than us right now, since we’re all half-asleep. “Where’s Princess Stella? She’s the  _ star  _ of this group, hm?” Sarcasm. Pure sarcasm. And Flora’s already gone to try to retrieve her, and I drag myself into her room where Stella is lying on the ground surrounded by stuffed animals and has covered her face with the hood of her pink onesie. Cute, not gonna lie.

“I’m not  _ leeeeaving _ ,” she moans, burying her head into the body of her bear plush.

“Come on, Stella,” Flora pleads. “Griselda needs us right now. She’s not going to wait, and if we don’t get moving, we might get an even worse punishment.”

“But she’s merciless!” Stella cries. “Even if I come out there, she’s gonna penalize us anyway!”

“ _ Stella _ .” Flora gives Stella a stern look, causing her to groan, raising her arm up as a gesture for Flora and I to help her up. Once we do so, we walk back into the foyer and step over Musa, who has decided to sleep on the floor. I wish that were me.

“Good, now we’re all here.” Griselda clasps her hands together and gently nudges Musa awake with her foot. “Because of your disobedience, you are now going to clean the entire school—and I mean  _ entire _ —beginning with the front entrance. I’m just here to wake you up and lead you there.” From our dismayed (and sleepy) faces, she smiles. “Don’t worry; this’ll be fun.” She pauses. “For  _ me _ .” She begins chortling at her own joke. 

“Come on, Griselda!” Stella cries. “Can’t you let us sleep for a couple more minutes? Or at least get dressed?”

Griselda thinks for a moment. “Alright, fine.  _ Only  _ because I don’t want to hear you complaining the entire time. You have fifteen minutes to get dressed, eat, or…” She eyes Musa. “ _ Sleep _ . But that’s  _ it _ .”

I smile. “Aww, Griselda, I knew you had a heart under there!”

Griselda, beginning to leave the room, smiles fakely and closes the door behind us, beginning a timer. 

We move out to begin changing and getting ready. After I’m done, I head into the bathroom where Flora is brushing Stella’s hair, while the client complains.

“Four AM, out of all times! I would’ve been okay with six or even five, but  _ noo _ ! Four, when the sun’s not even up! Doesn’t she know I rise and sleep with the sun?”

“The professors had a valid point, though, Stella.” Flora places down the hairbrush, moisturizing Stella’s hair a bit more. “We should’ve at least notified them we were going to Cloud Tower. We nearly died, and we broke rules. I would much rather this happen than get expelled. Don’t you think, Bloom?” 

I didn’t even realize she knew I was behind her. I nod, however, assuming she could still see me. “If I got expelled, I would think my life would be over. My school back home is like a dumpster fire compared to this place.”

“Eh.” Stella pulls her purse to her chest. “I’ve been expelled before, I can be expelled again.”

“What are schools like back on your planet?” Flora asks, watching Stella walk out of the room in the corner of her eye. 

I think for a moment. “Not as exciting. It’s twelve times smaller, and magic is completely nonexistent. We have classes like math and science and English, you know—stuff I’m never gonna use in the real world. Nothing is extravagant there. There, everyone is completely normal, with normal families and normal lives. Here, everyone’s either a noble or connected to royalty in some way. I look out of place compared to everyone else here.”

Flora stands up, moving a potted plant on Stella’s vanity over a bit. “You’re not out of place, sweetie. It just takes getting used to. And once you get used to it, it tends to lose its magic. I guarantee you, by the end of the year, you’ll be completely a part of the Magic Dimension.”

I smile a little. But I can’t imagine this place losing its  _ magic _ . There’s so much for me to learn here. This place is completely new to me, and I think I slightly like my ignorance.

“Now, come on.” Flora takes my hand. “We only have two minutes left before Griselda yells at us.”

I nod, walking with her out of the dorm room and down the many, many stairs to the front entrance.

* * *

I’m able to grab a granola bar from Stella, who snagged them from the school cafeteria. It’s not much breakfast, but knowing Griselda, she’s probably not gonna let us eat until we finish, so I better enjoy the snack while I can.

Once we all arrive at the front entrance, we’re greeted with the sight of Griselda staring at the stopwatch with a whole bunch of cleaning supplies behind her. Just as Musa steps off the final step, the stopwatch beeps, and she smiles devilishly at all of us. “Ah. Good to see you’re all on time. I didn’t know what I’d do if you all appeared late after I  _ graciously  _ gave you more time, hm?” She puts her stopwatch away. “Now, there’s no time to waste. I have a field trip to get to, so I’ll make this short. How many of you are royals or have servants in some way, shape, or form?”

All the girls around me raise their hands. I feel so awkward being the only one who hasn’t experienced it. Mom and I have joked that we should hire a maid, but it’s never become a reality.

Griselda hums in response. “And tell me, have you ever seen them clean your room? A corridor? A bathroom?”

“I have! It doesn’t seem very fun,” says Stella. “Especially the bathroom part. Even for us royals, the bathrooms are  _ hideous _ .”

“Miss Peters.” I jump when Griselda calls my name. “You’re the only one who didn’t raise her hand. As an Earthling, do they not have servants and the like?”

“I mean, they  _ do _ ,” I explain, “but only rich people can have them. My family’s not rich, so we have to do everything.”

“And tell me, what is that like?”

I think for a moment. “It’s not...horrible. I mean, cleaning my room is boring and grating, and the finished product is usually good. My mom’s the one who cleans the most in the house, and sometimes, I  _ have  _ to thank her. My room, my dad’s closet, and the bathrooms are the worst spots.”

“ _ Bathrooms are the enemy _ ,” Musa audibly whispers. 

“Alright, well, as Miss Peters has said, cleaning can be boring and uneventful, and depending on what you are cleaning, can be disgusting. And  _ yes _ , you  _ will  _ be cleaning bathrooms as well. They’re getting filthy, and it’s only been several weeks.”

Stella and Musa groan.

“Because your powers have been revoked, you’re going to have to live life as a magicless servant for a day.” She points over to the brooms, mops, buckets of water, and different soaps. “Imagine you were someone like Miss Peters, not a noble nor royal and had to do everything herself. After this, you’ll be appreciative of the ser—” She stops, seeing Techna’s ladybug gadget fly around the cleaning supplies. “What is that?” She notices quickly that it’s not a real insect.

“My scanner,” Techna answers. “It helps me to track and scan mysteries. And also to tell me what unfamiliar objects are.” It continues to fly around the supplies until Griselda traps the bug in her hand. “Oh, did I not mention?”

Techna blinks.

“No  _ gadgets  _ allowed, either.” 

Techna’s entire face just crumbles. “What do you mean ‘ _ no gadgets _ ’?”   
  
“Precisely what I said. It might speed up the process, and I want your punishment to be nice and slow, to make it remind you of what could happen if you break the rules like that again.” Griselda smiles.

“Honestly, I am not much of a beggar.” Techna begins her sentence more to herself than Griselda. “Gadgets are not a form of magic; they are a form of machinery, and they are very much a part of me, and without them, I shall feel completely cut off from who I am, and—”

Wow. Every sentence feels like she’s gonna have an actual meltdown. But Griselda’s not having it. “Miss Zenith. I know where you’re from. I know about the importance of machinery and advanced technology all across the Seven Binaries that the other realms don’t have.  _ But _ that doesn’t stop me from taking them away. You’re just gonna have to get used to living like the regular commonfolk.” 

Techna gives up, looking down defeatedly. I pat her on the shoulder, trying to look on the bright side. “Hey, if it makes you feel any better, you’re just like the rest of us now. We’re all in this together.”

I can hear the High School Musical song play in my head as I say it. Techna gives me an attempt at a small smile, but it seems more like a grimace.

Griselda lets go of the bug, letting it go back to Techna. “Anyway,” she continues. “Fortunately for you, the other students won’t be around to disrupt your work. We’re going to be taking a schoolwide field trip to Magix.”

“No way! Out of all days, you choose this one to take a field trip?” Musa cries.

“Correct. Such a shame you won’t be going. You would’ve been.  _ If you hadn’t broken a rule for the nth time this semester _ .” 

We’re quiet at that. She’s right.

Griselda looks at her watch. “Oh, my. Look at the time.” She clasps her hands together. “This is where I leave you.” She turns her head towards Flora. “Miss Linphea, if something happens while we’re gone, it’s your responsibility to contact one of the staff members. There’s an emergency contact button in each classroom, so there will be no reason you can’t call us.” Flora nods in understanding, mumbling a “yes, ma’am” quietly. 

We stand around for a couple seconds until Griselda raises her eyebrow. “Well, what are you just standing around for? Get to work!” And with that, she disappears in a cloud of sparkles.

* * *

Cleaning is not fun. Especially when you’re cleaning whole rooms.

It’s hard to get every nook and cranny, trying to figure out what’s part of the room and what’s not supposed to be there. It’s easy for me, though, since I’m familiar with cleaning and this kind of thing. For the other girls—including Flora—it’s not so simple. It’s evident they’re not familiar with cleaning at  _ all _ . Stella doesn’t know how to use a broom. Flora spills too much cleaning water. I have to pick Musa up to help her clean a spot on the higher wall (she’s quite short. It’s actually kinda cute, but not good for reaching high places). Techna disappears on the other side of the room, doing something weird with the broom. 

What feels like thirty minutes is actually twelve, and we’ve moved to cleaning the upper steps. Stella’s made her own mask and gloves to clean more uncleanly spots (“Oh, you can do that, but you can’t scrub one f*cking floor?” Musa asks). Flora’s assisting us when we mess up since she’s seemed to have gotten used to it already. Musa has overturned the bucket to use as a stool, but has nearly fallen and cracked her back twice. Flora urges her not to do that, but Musa is Musa and Musa does whatever the f*ck Musa wants to. 

Techna…

Well.

While we’re cleaning, there’s quite a loud crashing sound of glass and other large artifacts, so loud it made Musa’s ears hurt. When we turn our heads, Techna has a bucket on her head, holding the broom like a weapon. “Huh. I understand what the helmet is for.”

“Tech… What are you doing?” I ask, trying not to start laughing. There’s glass and sh*t all over there ground around her, meaning we’re gonna have to clean something else (and that stuff looks important, too!), but this is actually kinda funny.

“Cleaning. Is that not what I am supposed to be doing…?”

“Techna, why is the bucket on your head?” Stella asks, taking it off her head. 

“Is that not what it is for?”

Musa’s the first to start laughing. Flora hits her on the shoulder, giving her a disapproving look, and stepping towards Techna. “So that’s what you meant by unfamiliar objects. You don’t have brooms and things where you’re from?” 

Techna shakes her head. “Is that...a popular item in other realms?”

“It’s even popular on Earth,” I add.

Techna looks down at the ground, looking a bit embarrassed. “My apologies. ‘Twas not my intention to appear incompetent.”

“You’re not incompetent,” Flora comforts calmly. “You just didn’t know about these types of things. It’s not your fault. I can teach you. It’s not too hard once you get used to it. Here: I can teach you.” She takes the broom weapon from Techna’s hands, switching it back from a sword to a cleaning device. She catches us staring, and she waves a shooing hand. “Come on, keep working. Griselda wants us to be done before tomorrow. If we stand around here, we’ll never get done.” 

We clean more. Fortunately, we get done with the good majority of the front room, and Stella actually didn’t do a horrible job on the staircase and railings. I suggest we split up and clean the smaller rooms. 

It really makes me appreciate my mom. My room is nearly impossible to clean sometimes, and Dad’s not good at cleaning, either (seriously. His closet is  _ disturbing _ . Seriously, some of the things I’ve found there date back to the early eighties!), so it’s Mom’s job to clean things. “You know, sometimes I feel like a fifties housewife dealing with you two,” she used to say. “When the mother of the house had to cook and clean like a janitor. But I’m not complaining too much, because if I  _ made  _ you two clean or cook anything, you’d just kill someone trying.” And she’s not wrong. But I’m trying at least.

After what’s actually two hours, I find myself cleaning in the auditorium, where Musa and Stella have found themselves as well, but they’re arguing when I enter.

“Come on, why do  _ I  _ have to clean that area? You have two hands, which are—might I add— _ gloved _ . It’ll be better if  _ you  _ cleaned that area,” Musa yells. She’s always the one yelling in these situations.

“But that area is terrifying! The back of bleachers are the dirtiest area in  _ any  _ school,” says Stella. Can confirm. “I’ve cleaned three classrooms, including  _ bathrooms _ . I’m at my limit, Musa. I think it’d be better if  _ you  _ cleaned it. You like to get dirty and stuff, right? with your tomboyish attitude?”

“Just because I don’t want to dress myself in a frilly gown and put on heeled torture devices doesn’t mean I like cleaning areas that are probably teeming with mold and spiders. I’ve  _ had  _ my share of spiders for one year.” 

“So have  _ I _ , so one of us is gonna have to suffer.”

“Coin toss.” Musa takes out a coin. I was about to volunteer to do it for them, but I wanna see how this coin toss goes. “Heads, I do it, tails, you do it. Got it?”

“Uh huh. And I’m gonna watch carefully. Hate coin toss cheaters.”

The coin goes into the air, spins a bit, then lands unceremoniously on the floor, showing a clear tails sign.

“Sorry, Stella,” Musa apologies, obviously not sorry. “Looks like you’re on back bleacher duty.”

Stella’s face crumbles. “Wha—Hey! That’s not fair! You cheated!” She crosses her arms and pouts.

Musa takes up her coin. “Nope. Don’t blame me; blame Fate.” She hands Stella a scrub bucket and sponge. “Better get to cleaning, bud.”

“Before you two kill each other, don’t worry; I’ll clean it.” I take my stuff and head back there. The two of them are surprised to see me, but Musa just shrugs, and Stella smiles happily at me.

And they’re right. The back bleachers are disgusting, but not  _ overly  _ disgusting. Just with a lot of trash and a weird smell. Here at the Magic Dimension, they have something called  _ Smell-away _ , which, if sprayed on anything, makes it smell like roses. Or Flora. So it was handy cleaning over there.

As we’re cleaning, Musa begins to make a beat with the bucket unconsciously, mumbling lyrics which are still audible. “ _ Black and white, ‘cause baby I’m your match, and you’re my dynamite. We go together just like day and night, if only I could change your mind. We’d have fun, but I say high, and you say goodbye and walk across the borderline _ .” 

Have I mentioned how beautiful Musa’s voice is. It’s so light, and she hits all her notes beautifully, both high and low. And she’s gained popularity among the other students. After the concert in the welcoming dance, she was sought about by a lot of people wanting to write songs for her and wanting to make a band. Musa’s not very good around people, though, and she turned them down for a number of reasons. First: she prefers to do things alone, and second: she already writes and performs all her own original songs. Me? I tried writing a couple songs when I was younger, but they were so dumb, and the lyrics were clunky.

“What are you singing over there?” Stella asks, lowering her mask to sound clearer.

“Oh, just a random song I wrote. I just came up with it. I’m planning on that being my chorus.” She taps the bucket again, getting into the beat. 

“How do you do that? You just sang an entire chorus from just  _ cleaning _ ?” I ask wide-eyed.

“Yeah. Most singers would sit in front of some depressing river or look at an object for a really long time for inspiration. Not me. It just comes to me. My mom used to be able to do the same thing.” She begins to reminisce. “When I was little, I used to ask my mom to sing before I went to bed, and she would just start. It wasn’t some well-known lullaby or a popular song. It would just pop in her head, and it would always sound good.” She stops briefly, then goes back to cleaning, leaving an awkward silence. 

Stella seems to sense the awkwardness, but knows why, and is tactful enough to not elaborate on it. “You know, this room kinda reminds me of a ballroom.” She stands up, placing her hands on her hips. “See? the patterns on the wall, the bright colors, the  _ vibes _ . Makes me wanna hire a bishop who’ll ‘use the power of the Great Dragon to bless over Solaria’ and crown me queen.”

“I wanna see what that would look like.” I rest on my knees. “When will you be crowned?”

“In four years. Daddy’ll step down from the throne, and I’ll be named Queen Stella of Solaria. It’ll look something like this.” She turns her head towards Musa. “Musa, be my bishop.”

Musa doesn’t object and grabs the empty bucket. “I’ve seen mainstream crownings before,” she says to me. “In Harmonica, it’s quite different. It’s very seldom and boring and  _ bleh _ . I would much rather have one of these.” She clears her throats and deepens her voice. “Princess Stella Sunny Purnama Mahina of Solaria, do you comply with the rules and rights of royals in the realm of Solaria, established 4000 BDP, to love and uphold your citizens, to restore or maintain power, and to—” Musa drops the deep voice “—basically be a f*cking human being?”

“I do,” Stella replies royally.

Musa looks down at the bucket, about to place it on Stella’s head when a mischievous look crosses her face. I raise an eyebrow in confusion, but she just brings a finger to her lips to keep me quiet. She creeps towards the container of water, filling up the bucket, and now I know exactly what she’s gonna do. “Well, then, by the power vested in me, Archbishop Musa Uta Matlin Wa-Nin of the Harmonious Empire, I pronounce you…” She begins to pour the water onto Stella's head, catching the victim off-guard. “Princess of Solaria.” She places her hand on her hip and smirks at Stella’s surprise.

“What the  _ hell _ !” Stella cries, running her hands through her soaked hair and looking down at her now-wet clothes. Her makeup was beginning to run, too. On one hand, I feel bad for Stella. On the other hand,  _ hahahahahaha _ . “This makeup isn’t waterproof!  _ Musa _ ! F*ck you!”

“Hey, I think it’s payback for arguing with me about who got to do the back bleachers.” As Musa speaks, I get the genius idea to join in on this fun. I grab my bucket, dip it into some water, then stealthily sneak up behind her and do the same thing, satisfyingly watching her get just as soaked as Stella. Musa wasn’t wearing any makeup, so it wasn’t too much of a grievance, and she even wasn’t too bothered by it. “Oi! Bloom!” she cries laughing. “Thought you were on my side!”

“I am! But it has to go both ways, Musa, dear,” I tease. Musa grabs her bucket from the floor, getting more water, and I take off. It really feels like we’re a whole bunch of elementary school kids, chasing each other for dumb reasons. But I don’t hate it. You see, I’m still a child at heart, despite turning sixteen in December. I haven’t gotten to do something this fun in quite some time. Growing up sucks.

At this rate, we’re gonna have to refill it, but it’s not really crossing our minds. Stella isn’t joining in on the fun, shivering, and walking away carefully, trying not to get caught in the crossfire as Musa is going around trying to get me wet, too.

In the end, I’ve hurt my backbone twice (because running surrounded by water isn’t the smartest idea), am soaking wet, and exhausted. So is Musa and Stella. Stella, unfortunately, was not able to escape the crossfire, so she’s now twice as wet, and we got to feel her wrath as she made us all look like we just swam a mile in the sea. We’re lying there on the auditorium floor, trying to find the strength to keep going, when a quiet, “Oh, goodness,” causes us all to turn our heads.

Techna and Flora are standing there at the entrance, staring at the wet mess that is the auditorium. “Hi, guys,” I greet tiredly.

“What in the world happened here?” Flora asks, stepping forward into a puddle.

“Were you attacked by a vicious water monster?” Techna asks, genuinely worried.

“No, but we were nearly murdered by Stella over there.” Musa has a dopey smile on her face, rolling onto her stomach. 

“Only because  _ you  _ ruined my makeup,” Stella retorts.

“Oh, it’s fine,” Musa replies. “You only had ten minutes anyway.”

“Speaking of time!” Flora cuts in, sounding exasperated. “If you would’ve cleaned this place normally, we would be finished so much earlier! Can I not leave you unsupervised?” 

We look a bit sheepish now. Oops. “Sorry, Flora,” I apologize, feeling quite guilty. It feels like when Mom’s reprimanding me, but she’s not mad; just disappointed, which, I feel, is worse.

Flora holds the bridge of her nose, quietly telling Techna to grab the mops. Said girl seems a bit confused, but leaves anyway, leaving us with a disapproving  mom  Flora.

“What are we gonna do, now? This place is nearly the biggest room in the school. It’ll take us quite some time to repair the damage.” Right as Flora finishes the last sentence, Techna comes back with the brooms, holding them upside down, but fixing it with a sheepish half-smile (she’s been attempting smiling for quite some time now. It seems like she’s completely unfamiliar with doing so, and she can only manage to do half-smiles like these). 

“Well, you guys are here now,” says Musa. “You guys can help.”

“And so—” Flora thrusts the mop into her hands “—can you.”

We start cleaning again, this time in nearly complete silence. It’s not like we’re  _ trying  _ to be awkward. It just feels like we shouldn’t cross Flora, especially since she knows how to make us feel bad about messing up.

About forty minutes into recleaning the auditorium, Stella’s phone begins to buzz, and she puts down her mop and lowers her mask. She smiles at the screen. “It’s Sky; he wants to facetime.”

“That’s nice and all, but we have a school to clean,” Flora explains. “You’re going to have to call him back, Stella.”

An imaginary lightbulb lights up above my head. “Actually… You  _ should  _ answer it.”

“You look as if you have concocted an idea,” Techna says, eyeing my face. 

“I  _ have _ .” I cross my arms. “The school is huge, right?”

Stella’s phone continues to vibrate, and she quickly texts back. The other girls nod slowly, wanting me to elaborate.

“ _ Welll _ , Griselda said we couldn’t use any magic. She never said we couldn’t use any help. I dunno what the Specialists could be doing at this moment; it’s the weekend.” It sounds good. And I haven’t seen Brandon in person for quite some time. School’s been kicking my *ss. But we talk a lot virtually since the welcoming dance. He’s even awesome once you get to know him.

Apparently, his family has been protecting the royal family of Eraklyon for millennia. It was no different for Brandon, having to protect Prince Sky. They have become friends since they’re together the entire time. The only reason Brandon attends Red Fountain is because Sky got into the school, but it doesn’t bother him too much. But he doesn’t like talking a lot about his childhood; in fact, he seems extremely interested in mine, since I’m an Earth girl. He had forgotten a place without magic even existed, so when I showed up (and when they got called to Earth when I first met Stella after the  _ troll  _ incident), it was so new and cool to him. He also says sharing a group with Sky, Timmy, and Riven is fun… In their own ways.

Sky’s a person who likes flirting with any woman he sees, but is very devoted towards Stella. He likes getting up early in the morning to train (so Brandon has to go with him) and likes getting into adventures. He’s constantly getting himself in danger, and it’s a bit stressful for Brandon, but slightly amusing.

Timmy is an extremely chatty person (according to both Brandon and Techna) once you get to know him. If he considers you a stranger, he’ll shut himself off and get scatterbrained if you approach him. He’s their team technician, inventing, repairing with all things technology in the math and science fields. He’s also the mediator of the group, so whenever things get a bit heated (it’s a room full of hormonal teenage boys; of course it’s gonna get a bit wild), he comes in to fix things to the best of his abilities. 

And Riven… Well, Riven’s Riven. He’s moody as hell, yelling at everything and anyone, but Sky says depending on how  _ much  _ he yells, it’s a sign telling you his mood. So he’s naturally rude and angry. Cool. Sky and Brandon say they don’t actually know why he’s like that despite having known him for years. He’s reckless and not very level-headed, along with being a loner, so he’s a bit of a basketcase. And Musa has taken a liking to him (just won’t fully admit it).

Anyway.

“Oh, no, we are not getting anyone else roped into this,” Flora scolds. “We’re already in trouble. We could be suspended next. Or worse!”

“Actually, Bloom’s right…” says Stella. “Griselda never said we couldn’t get some help. How are we supposed to clean the entire school with only…” She begins counting in her head. “Ten hands?”

“Yeah!  _ Aaand _ we could have a party afterwards. Like a hangout!” I add. “Musa, you’ve been working on some new songs, right? You could sing some for us!”

“Oh, hell yeah!” Musa drops everything and runs off in the direction of our apartment to grab her notebook. 

“But what happens if Griselda meant we were not permitted to have the Specialists over as well?” Techna asks.

“Then, we’re f*cked. But it will have been worth it!” Stella explains. Flora frowns.

“Come on, Flora!” I plead. “ _ Please _ ? If Griselda really wanted us to clean this school by morning tomorrow, she would allow us to get some extra help! We’re not using magic or gadgets, are we?”

Flora hesitates before shaking her head.

“See! And if Griselda  _ does  _ have a problem with it, we’ll bring it up with the headmistress. It’ll be fine.”

Flora doesn’t respond. Just watches as Musa comes running with her sparkly notebook. Stella begins texting Sky. Musa opens her book next to me, showing me her lyrics. “Okay, so I’m thinking  _ this one  _ is my favorite I’ve been working on, but I like the name of  _ this one _ :  _ Spotlight.  _ It’s inspired by Stella, but don’t tell  _ her  _ that. It’ll make her head bigger than it already is, and I don’t mean it in the metaphorical sense—”

* * *

We’re cleaning the bathrooms when we hear the ship pull up. Stella nearly kills us all going to the front of the school. After popping my shoulder back in place, we all head outside. It’s gotten cooler, and I really wish I had decided to wear a jacket over my short sleeves. Dammit. 

“HEY, STELLA!” Sky practically yells from the ship.

“HI, SKY!” she shrieks back. The ship lowers onto the ground.

“Was that really necessary?” Techna wonders. “You could have waited until he was on the ground.” But before Stella can respond, a small, but happy, “Hey, Techna!” cuts her off, leaving her frozen in place, then unfreezing to present a small wave to Timmy. 

Brandon happily walks out next, winking. I can feel my face heat up just a bit, and my eyes travel towards the ground.

Riven comes swaggering out last, grumbling something about, “getting it over with”. I can see Musa tense in the corner of my eye.

Stella walks up first, pecking Sky on the cheek. “Good, you’re all here.” 

“Prince Sky over here said that you had an emergency. I don’t see anything that counts as an emergency.” Riven crosses his arm, obviously getting annoyed despite having  _ just  _ got there. Musa averts her gaze, but her eyes flick back towards him, an expression of contemplation, as if she’s wondering if she should be allowed to be interested in a guy like Riven. And really, I don’t like him too much. He’s what my mother would call a “diva dude”. “Never date a diva dude,” she usually says. “I dated one once, and I didn’t like it much.”

“It  _ is  _ an emergency!” Stella cries. “Calm down, Riven; I know being a Specialist and all is about being all manly, but really—pull the sword out of your *ss, alright?”

Brandon, Sky, and Musa try to unsuccessfully smother their laughter. Riven gives them a dirty look.

“But anyway, we’ll explain in a moment. Let’s go inside, shall we? It’s much better looking than the outside.” Stella grabs Sky’s hand and leads him inside first, leaving us all to lead the boys inside on our own.

Timmy seems excited about going into the school, not questioning a thing about what we’re asking them to help us out with. “I’ve never gone  _ inside  _ Alfea Castle before! The exterior looks absolutely amazing; it must’ve taken thousands of years to get what it looks like now. I may not be a fairy, but I find fairy colleges extremely interesting. Each of them has their own strengths and weaknesses when it comes to the students, the staff, the history, and the style of teaching—the curriculum, I mean. It’ll be like I’m stepping onto a piece of extremely important magical history, and—” And he continues rambling on and on. Riven rolls his eyes, mumbling something about, “and there he goes”, making me realize, he really does mumble a lot. 

Brandon runs forward to stand next to me. “When Stella said they had an emergency, it wasn’t  _ really  _ an emergency, was it?”

I shake my head. “Depends on your definition of emergency.” Timmy’s still talking. “But no, not really. We just need help cleaning the school.”

Brandon raises an eyebrow. We step into the entrance, heading up the stairs. Sky and Stella are already gone. “Cleaning the school? I thought you—” His face changes to one of realization. “What did Stella do?”

I laugh at that. Brandon was the one who introduced Stella to Sky. Apparently, Eraklyon and Solaria are on really good terms realm-wise, and it wasn’t a weird thing for the princess of Solaria to spend time with the prince and squire of Eraklyon. According to Stella, when she saw Sky, it was like love at first sight. I believe her. I’m not gonna lie, Sky is attractive, but I’m more of a Brandon person, thanks. “More like what all of us did. We sneaked onto Cloud Tower without permission….”

Brandon’s eyes widen. “And you’re still alive?”

I nod. “But just barely. Lemme tell you, I’m never gonna go back there on my own volition.”

“Wow.” Brandon smiles at me. “Damn, that’s badass.”

“Badass shouldn’t be used to describe a fairy, and you know that, Brandon,” Riven cuts in, joining us. He looks at me. “He’s just saying that to be nice. Brandon’s just nice to everyone.”

“Nobody asked you, Riven,” says Brandon, rolling his eyes. “I thought you were the main one talking about how rude it is to  _ eavesdrop _ ?”

“Yeah, when  _ you’re  _ doing it. And besides, I need something to do.” He addresses me again. “Your friend over there is creeping me out.” He sideyes Musa, who blinks at him, expression glaring. “Is this normal fairy behavior? for one to just stare at someone for long periods of time?”

“How can I  _ not  _ stare at you?” Musa barks, face slightly pink. “Your haircut sucks, plant head. Get a f*cking haircut.” She speedwalks past us, ignoring Flora’s remark of, “Musa, language!”

“Feisty…” Riven mutters, more to himself than any of us. He shrugs, walking past us at the same speed as Musa. 

“Maybe we should’ve just left Riven back at Red Fountain…” Brandon wonders. “Though, he seems to be in a better mood than normal, so….”

“That’s him in a good mood?” I chuckle.

We find Stella in the cafeteria, telling Sky how to scrub a floor. He’s on his hands and knees with a small sponge. Flora comes walking over to her, giving her a questioning look at him. 

“Oh, calm down, Flora.” Stella waves a dismissive hand. “I’m not forcing him to do the work  _ for  _ me. I’m just showing him the ropes. Do you know how many royals actually  _ do  _ work? Not many, I must say.” 

“That’s not what I’m wondering—though, I’m glad you’re not making him do all your work,” says Flora. “I’m wondering because you’re instructing him wrong. You’re not supposed to dump water on the floor and clean it; you’re supposed to take the mop or sponge and soak it in the water. That way, you’ll lose less water.”

I’ve taught her well. 

“I figured.” Sky sits up, his legs tucked underneath him. “Fortunately, my parents didn’t want me to be stupid, so they taught me how to clean in case of emergency.” He smiles a nearly blinding smile, making Stella near swoon, while Flora and I shield our eyes.

“Can you turn that light off?” Riven grumbles, in reference to Sky’s teeth. Sky shrugs and goes back to work. “So  _ this  _ was the emergency? You princesses don’t know how to clean?”

“We do  _ now _ ,” Stella explains, not looking at him. “But this school is huge. We’ll never finish in time. And Bloom had the great idea to invite you guys here to help.” She hands him a broom. 

Riven glares at me briefly, then stalks off. Musa watches him leave, walking over to Brandon. “Why’s he always in a mood?”

Brandon shrugs. “It’s just Riven being Riven. He’s been like that for as long as we can remember.”

“Which isn’t that long?” I ask, though it sounds more like a statement than a question.

“Actually, no. Riven used to spend time with us back on Eraklyon. But he kinda grew distant from us when we were around twelve, and we didn’t see him again until entrance exams, and he had really changed. Though, he was always kinda gruff towards us. It just went from a five to a ten when we saw him again.”

Huh. Everyone’s hanging out at Eraklyon. “Did something happen to him?”

“Not that we know of. But here’s one thing I know: he’s always kinda been on his own. He has no family, you see. He thinks they abandoned him, but Riven’s makes self-deprecating comments all the time, so… There’s a chance he could’ve died. We don’t know what he was doing before he showed up. He just became part of our crew—Stella, Sky, and I—and just disappeared before we turned thirteen.”

Musa hums in understanding, looking back towards Riven. She bounces a bit as she goes over towards him. Brandon and I exchange glances. 

Techna and Timmy are standing close towards us, and I can hear a good bit of what they’re saying.

“You are surprisingly well taught in the clean field,” Techna expresses, watching Timmy clean a table, an expression of unconscious curiosity on her face. 

“Well, yeah. Grandpa used to make me clean  _ all the time _ . But I know a lot of people who  _ hate  _ to clean. I can be a little bad at it, too. You should see my desk; cluttered as hell!” 

“You use the primitive instruments as well?”

“Of course! I sometimes forget you’re from the Capital, and how it differs from...everywhere else. We’re not so technologically advanced.”

The Capital… Sounds like something out of the Hunger Games.

“Oh, but I have been learning how to use them quite effectively. The so-called  _ bucket  _ is not to be used as a helmet.”

“Of course it wouldn’t be. I don’t think it works too well. I think it’s obvious what it’s for. I don’t know how anyone would mess that up.”

Techna blinks at him, then looks down, looking a bit embarrassed. Timmy’s face contorts to one of apology and surprise. “Oh! Oops! Uh, I didn’t mean to offend you! I just didn’t know! I’m so sorry!”

“I-it is perfectly fine. You tend to dissolve into a puddle of apologeticness extremely easily. I am not all too offended. ‘Twas a lapse of my intelligence.”

“You’re never that offended by things. But I always mess up with you. I  _ have  _ to apologize, or else it’s gonna eat me up on the inside and slowly kill me! And I don’t want to hurt your feelings.”

Techna stares at him blankly. “But you have not hurt my feelings.” 

“But I could have!”

“But you have not.”

“But I could have!”

“But you have not.”

And this continues for a bit, and I can’t help but laugh at the two of them. 

We all spread out to clean places, and I notice a few things about each of the boys.

Brandon is bad at cleaning compared to Sky. There are multiple times where I had to keep him from hitting someone in the face with the broom and missing the dustpan. He’s trying, though. He’ll get it...at some point.

Sky’s  _ good  _ at cleaning, really. He knows how to use all the appliances, how much detergent he needs, how to dust off delicate areas… Really. More royals should teach their kids how to clean up. It’s refreshing not having to tell him that you’re  _ not  _ supposed to sort the dust (Techna) or spill the water everywhere (Stella). And he can even flirt while he’s doing it.

Riven cleans, just not very well. It’s not like he  _ hasn’t  _ done it before, because he knows  _ what  _ to do; he just doesn’t do it very effectively. Flora and I have tried to tell him to correct his mistakes, but he just barks at us, telling us that he doesn’t need “fairies telling him what to do”. Musa, who’s also there, ignores that, and continues to tell him how he’s messing up in an annoyed manner. He seems to listen to her more than the rest of us.

Timmy’s good at cleaning, too, though he can get distracted at times. He has the habit of touching things that don’t need to be touched, tripping over his own two feet, and causing general, accidental mayhem. But he has good intentions. Techna certainly thinks so, though she can be just as clumsy as he is. (They nearly kill us all when Timmy accidentally spills a bucket completely  _ filled  _ with water, and it travels all across the floor. My tailbone hurts like hell, now.) 

Despite all this, we get a  _ lot  _ done in the span of three hours. We’re able to reclean the auditorium, finish the rest of the classrooms—including the broken Potions Lab—and even get done with the bathrooms (“Come on, aren’t you fairies? That area is disgusting!” Riven cries, throwing down his towel). 

I’m completely surprised when we’re done, and it’s only five o’clock. According to Flora (who asked Griselda) the other students wouldn’t be back until nine or ten o’clock. So we have the school to ourselves. 

We decide to head into our apartment and hang out there. We even put on some music to dance around to if we wanted. It’s fun. We spend time in the foyer the entire time, mostly because Flora wouldn’t let us go anywhere else. 

“We are hormonal teenagers,” she whispers to us. “Bad things can happen if we’re not careful.”

“Oh, come on, Flora, give us a break.” Stella waves a dismissive hand. “I know all of them quite well. They’re not gonna hurt us.”

“Really?” Musa looks like a mental light bulb just went off in her head.

“Of course! I’m an extrovert, darling. I  _ have  _ to talk to people!”

Musa looks from left to right, taking Stella’s arm. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

“Huh? Oh, sure—” But she’s cut off when Musa yanks her into her room. Flora and I exchange glances. Techna has placed herself farther away from everyone else, looking on her phone.

“Are you okay?” I ask, noticing her strange behavior.

Techna looks up at me, turns her head towards the source of the music, looks past me to look at the boys and Flora, then goes back to her phone. “I am fine.”

“Are you sure? You’re acting like someone’s gonna bite you if you step out into the spotlight.” I’m joking, obviously, but Techna doesn’t get jokes, so she looks at me blankly. “It would be rude if they did decide to bite me. Now, I do not want to venture out there even more.”

“No, no! I don’t mean they  _ are  _ going to bite you. I just mean you act like they  _ might _ .”

“When will they bite me?”

“No, I don’t mean—” I cut myself off. I’m slowly getting used to Techna’s literal mindset and general confusion. Slowly. “You just seem uncomfortable.”

“I shall be fine here. There is no need to worry.” And with that, she moves into a corner and continues scrolling on her phone.

The guys seem to be enjoying themselves.

Brandon, Sky, and Riven are arguing about which would be worse: fighting a chicken-sized ogre or an ogre-sized chicken (and Timmy adds that he’s had to deal with both once, which makes them all erupt in laughter). Brandon looks at me a couple times, smiling warmly, and it makes my heart swell. He’s just so sweet at times. Flora is making small snacks for us all since we hadn’t eaten since this morning. Stella reappears with a blushing Musa, and Stella can’t wait to drag me into a place the boys won’t be able to hear.

“Musa has a crush on Riven,” she explains.

I blink. “Of course she does. I thought it was obvious.”

“Of course it’s obvious, but she finally admitted it. And to me, of all people! Jinkies, I really thought she hated me.”

“I wouldn’t say  _ hated _ —” But Stella’s still going. 

“She wanted me to tell her everything she needed to know about Riven’s personality; like the things he likes, the things he doesn’t like, how to approach him, yadda yadda yadda. And I was able to help her. My knowledge of absolutely everybody helps out a lot.”

“You’re absolutely sure what you told her was correct, right?” I try to clarify. “Don’t take offense to this, but, Stella, you can sometimes mess things up horribly. And Musa isn’t a person who takes things well.” 

Musa has joined in on the conversation, subtly placing herself next to Riven.

“Oh, don’t worry, Bloom. You’re too considerate. Everything I say is usually always right. And especially about Riven. I’ve known him since I was like eight or nine. And even if I didn’t, I’m a bit of an… Erm, what’s the name of that person who goes around making people fall in love all the time?” 

“Cupid—or Eros,” I answer.

“Eros, right. I’m a bit of an Eros myself. I can help everybody. Boys who like girls, girls who like boys, girls who like girls, boys who like boys, unspecified gender who likes another unspecified gender… You know. I help everyone. Operation Rusa is a-go.”

“Rusa?”

“Musa and Riven.  _ Rusa _ . I like the sound of it. It’s a combination of their names.”

I nod in understanding. I’ve had Andy and I’s names combined.  _ Blandy.  _ I didn’t like it much.

“It’ll be a success soon. I know it will. Because I’m good with relationship advice. All preferences, all people.” Stella smiles. She then begins to look behind me. I turn to look, too. “And after Rusa is a success, we’re going to start with Tecmithy.” Techna and Timmy are at the kitchen counter, talking to each other, Timmy watching Techna repair his phone. He looks at her with amazement in his eyes, and I can tell why Stella would ship it. 

“Oh, Timothy Highslayer. Such a sweet boy, just so  _ awkward _ . He’s shy as all hell at first, but then he gets excited if you talk about something he’s into. But according to Techna, dear girl, they met when he had slammed right into her *ss.” Stella begins laughing.

I choke on nothing. “Wait, what?”

“Yep. And Timmy nearly exploded trying to apologize. And then he had spilled his drink on her top, and he nearly touched her boobs. The best part was, Techna wasn’t even offended by that. She was just confused, and  _ I  _ was the one who had to explain why he was so flustered. But then, he realized that she was absolutely  _ obsessed  _ with technology, and they became great friends. But no ordinary  _ best friends  _ act so awkward around each other. Though, Techna has an excuse; she’s a bit of a basket case at times.” 

She can be, I have to agree.

“And speaking of lovers and crushes,  _ Bloom _ .” She nudges my shoulder. “Why are you hanging around  _ me _ ?”

“Erm, because you brought me over here?”

“Rhetorical question, Bloom,” Stella replies. “The boys are hanging over there. And you know  _ which  _ boy I’m referring to.” She winks at Brandon, who, feeling our eyes on him, looks over at us, looking a bit confused.

“Come on, Stella, don’t be creepy.” I smile at her. “He’s hanging around his guy friends right now; I don’t want to intrude.”

“Oh, come on, now! Brandon’s been looking at you this entire time! He’s been giving you hints, and you’re not taking them. Go over there! Do you want to argue with me, Eros incarnate?”

I sigh. “Alright…” I move into the foyer, seeing the seat next to Brandon open. He scoots over to let me sit down, and I can clearly hear what the conversation was about.

“But that dragon was  _ ridiculously  _ huge!” Sky cries gesticulating. “It was like...ten feet tall, and do you remember those claws?”

“It looked like every other dragon, Sky, you’re just a p*ssy.” Riven laughs a bit. 

“Not how I remember it! My family  _ has  _ dragons, and none of them looked like that!”

“What are we talking about?” I whisper to Brandon.

“Basically,” Brandon explains, “there was this one time Riven, Sky, Stella and I were doing something we weren’t supposed to be doing and came across a dragon.”

“I think it was a hydra!” Sky shrieks.

“Sweetie, love you and all,” Stella cuts in, sitting on one of the farther couches, “but that was  _ no  _ hydra. Hydras have more than one head.”

Sky crosses his arms and pouts. “Well, it was super tall and looked like it had more than one head!”

“Stella had tried to ward it off with a spell, and all it did was make it angrier.” Brandon begins chuckling at that.

“I  _ had  _ to do something! Sky was about to sh*t himself—” 

“Stella, language.”

“Sorry.  _ Crap  _ himself, and no matter how tall Brandon was at nine, he couldn’t do any real damage. And I don’t even know  _ what  _ Riven was doing.”

“I ran to get help!” Riven explains.

“Really? I don’t think any of us could tell by your yelling, ‘ _ Oh, my gods, we’re going to die! Somebody help us! Somebody help  _ **_me_ ** !”

Musa snorts, not even trying to conceal her laughter. “So much for being all strong and mighty.”

“Well, you would act like that, too, if you saw a big*ss—” 

“Language!”

“ _ Ass _ ,” Riven hisses, “dragon at the age of nine."

“I used to have this baby lizard creature when I was younger,” Musa explains. “I used to play music for it, and it would give me its honest opinion by their dance. If it was a good song, it would twirl around. If it was bad, it would just sit there. I miss that lizard sometimes. He’s grown into this water snake thing, now.”

“Don’t you have a rabbit or something, Bloom?” Brandon asks. 

I nod. “Yeah, Kiko. You know, the strangest thing about him is that he was able to get through the magical barrier. It’s supposed to keep all magic creatures out. Though, then again, not even a year ago, I didn’t think magic even existed, so I’m not too surprised.”

The conversation continues. I’ve still been kinda out of it since the Cloud Tower mission. I got zero answers, but I know if we could’ve stayed, I could’ve found  _ something _ . But it’s like everyone who knows something is either gone or just doesn’t want to tell me. And it’s kinda hard to find things on Princess Daphne, of whom I think was the woman I saw in my vision. I haven’t seen her in a bit, and I kinda makes me believe there really wasn’t anything actually there; just me hallucinating. But the fact that I can describe her vividly makes me sure I wasn’t just going crazy. And it’s hard to find too much on her specifically. I’ve read things on the slaughter of the entire royal court of Domino fifteen-years-ago, where she supposedly died, but nothing on her specifically. Nothing that could tie her to me.

“Hey, Bloom.” I turn my head, getting snapped out of my thoughts. Brandon’s looking at me concerned. “Are you okay?”

“Um…” I contemplate asking. “C-could I talk to you in private?”

Brandon nods. We head over towards the back. In the corner of my eye, Techna and Timmy are talking quietly by the balcony. “So what’s up?” he asks. He’s always eager to talk to me; it’s just so sweet. He’s a really nice guy. I may not have known him for  _ too  _ long, but he has this trustworthy air about him, and I have to act on that.

“Do you know anything about...Princess Daphne? Of Domino?”

Brandon taps his chin in thought. “Princess Daphne… I don’t know too much about her. All I do know is she was the last to be killed in the attack on Domino fifteen years ago. It’s what led to the downfall of the kingdom. Domino’s now a cold, desolate area that no one can go to. It’s even more creepy than the Omega Dimension, but at least people can actually go  _ there _ .”

“You don’t know anything about her actual life? Did she have any connection to Earth o-or something? Anything?”

“Bloom, what’s wrong?” he asks. “Why are you so interested in her?”

“It’s because of my vision and something the headmistress said!” I blurt, frustration building.

“What vision?” 

“Nevermind that. I asked Faragonda how I got these powers, and she asked me about her. She described her to me, and that same day, I was visited by this woman who looked  _ exactly at what _ Faragonda had said. I haven’t gotten the chance to ask her about it yet, so I’ve been trying to get my own research, but I can’t find anything about her that might tie her to me.”

Brandon thinks hard. “I’m pretty bad at these things—Timmy’s better at deciphering these things than I am. Have you been visited by her again?”

“Well, no, but her name seems to pop up a lot, and I really believe she’s connected to me. Why else would she appear in my mind and have Faragonda mention her?”

“I get the latter part. Faragonda’s the wisest fairy in the Magic Dimension right now, even more than Saladin. If she mentions her to you, that means she has to know something. If she appears in your mind again, she might be Connected to you.”

“I know she’s  _ connected  _ to me, Brandon.”

“ _ No _ . I mean  _ Connected _ . With a capital C. Timmy can give you the full explanation of what that is exactly, but the gist of it is when a person’s magical Soul is connected to another person—whether it’s romantic love, familial love, or just a spiritual bond.”

“How does it work?” I ask, getting intrigued. I’m actually getting somewhere. I might  _ finally  _ get some answers.

“I’ll ask Timmy. He’s the one who does the most research on these things.” He moves towards the balcony, but he seems confused by the behavior of Techna and Timmy, who are standing quite close to the edge, looking over at the side of the castle. Techna has these weird goggles on, and Timmy stands a bit on his tip-toes, trying to see outwards. “Erm, what are you guys doing?”

“ _ Hush _ .” Timmy uses a sweeping motion to hush us up. “Techna’s at work.”

“What is she doing?” I ask, eyeing Techna. Her head moves slowly in the same direction, tinkering with the weird goggles on her face.

“ _ She sensed this weird presence coming from over there _ ,” Timmy whispers, pointing outwards. “ _ At first, it seemed just a random malfunction _ —”

“Not a malfunction,” Techna cuts in, still searching. “My sensors are nearly flawless.”

“Oops, sorry.” Timmy raises his voice above a whisper, but not completely at normal level. “At first, it seemed like it was just somebody passing by the school, but then the being got more prominent, and now Techna thinks that there’s an unwanted visitor on the grounds.”

“I do not think so; I know so.” Techna takes off the goggles. “There is something strange coming from the east wing, almost near here. I cannot tell exactly what it is, but I know it is not the same species as the rest of us.”

Just as she says that, somebody’s TV comes dropping hurdling onto the ground from somewhere with a loud crash, causing the others in the foyer to come see what was going on. 

“What the hell was that?” Musa asks.

“I think somebody’s TV just committed suicide!” Stella exclaims. 

“It must have something to do with the unknown heat source.” Techna moves past the rest of us, running out of the room at quite a fast speed, in an unknown direction.

“Wha— Hey!” I run after her, but not without noticing Brandon and Timmy running behind me.

I don’t know where the  _ hell  _ she’s going. It’s hard to catch up with her, and I nearly lose her trying. It really does keep showing me how large this school is. If it wasn’t for special technologies and whatnot, I probably would’ve never found my way out of here.

I end up outside, and I look around for where Techna went. Timmy and Brandon stand next to me, looking in the same direction.

“Where did she…?” Timmy wonders, but is stopped when Techna’s head pops from one of the corridors leading out here. She gestures for us to come here, and we walk over towards her. Now I kinda know what she was looking for.

The entire corridor (the one we had  _ cleaned _ , g*dd*mn it) had been destroyed. Something had smashed its way through, making large dents and littering the ground in rubble and broken glass. There were strange strands of blue hair, but it seemed more like fur than hair.

“What in the world happened here?” Brandon asks, taking out a flashlight to look around in the darkness.

The others come running by as well, Stella complaining about us running off, but she stops when she sees what happened. “I thought we were the only people left! Isn’t everyone else at the concert?”

“Obviously not,” Musa replies. “These things don’t just  _ happen _ .”

“Well, whoever did this seemed pretty angry,” Sky adds. “Hey, Flora, can you use your magic to tell exactly what did this?”

“I might…” Flora closes her eyes, everything going silent. There seemed to be a light glow emitting from her, telling us she was at work. I really like Flora’s power. Really, I do. She can communicate with any plant bodies, but not  _ all  _ nature. She can’t do things with animals. But I still think it’s cool. 

She finishes her spell, looking over at us. “The plants around here say that they don’t know  _ exactly  _ what it was, giving me the impression that it’s not human—”

“‘Tis not,” Techna cuts in.

“—but the plants say it was large and dangerous. It seemed to have a mission.”

“How reliable are those plants?” Riven asks incredulously. “Can’t believe we’re listening to a  _ tree hugger _ . They’re plants. Plants don’t do anything.”

Musa opens her mouth to tell him off, but Flora holds up her hand to keep her silent. “Riven, plants are more important than you think. Each one is individual—there are no two plants that are the same. My power allows me to listen to them. If you don’t believe me that’s fine, but I wouldn’t expect you to understand since you’re not a fairy and rely more on your brawns than your brains.”

Riven glares at her.

“Hey, Stella, can you give us some light?” I ask. Stella smiles and walks into the middle, lighting up the entire room with her body. She’s so bright, I have to shield my eyes.

“Stella is  _ literally  _ the light of my life,” Sky remarks chuckling.

“Aw, thank you, dear.” The compliment just makes her brighter.

“Hey! Stella! Can you turn that down some? I want to keep my eyesight!”

“Oops, sorry.” Stella tones it down some, giving us enough to look around. The far door has been completely torn off its hinges, as if whatever it is was in a hell of a hurry.

“Is the creature still here, Tec?” Timmy asks.

Techna nods. “It has moved closer towards the west wing.”

“Then, we’ll go get it.” Sky smiles again in a chivalrous way, and it makes black spots appear in my vision. Jesus Christ. “You ladies can sit back. Us Specialists are here to help.”

“Oh, so we can’t help?” Musa asks, stepping forward. “You like leaving us so you can do your little prince charming rescue, huh?” She might be a couple inches shorter than Sky, but she’s intimidating as hell once you get her riled. 

“Whoa, whoa, before we get angry…” I stand in-between the two, feeling like the mediator. “Us ladies can go look on our own. It won’t be like the troll incident.”

“Damn troll,” Sky coughs.

Musa huffs, and Riven stares at her for a moment, giving her a look akin to the one she had been giving him for quite some time. Stella doesn’t miss it, either, and she nudges me to pay attention.

“Alright.” Brandon looks back at the rest of us. “We’ll go through this area.” He points towards the area behind the broken door. 

“Alright, and we can go look near the dorm area.” 

It’s all in agreement, and we split into our separate ways.

* * *

“But—like—Harmonica is one of the prettiest places ever. The grass is always green, it’s covered in nature, there’s exotic animals there… It was ranked number  _ two  _ on Magical Magazine’s ‘Ranking Realms By Their Scenery’. It’s the best in the Capital, where it’s more bustling but still beautiful. You should see the palace, Bloom. You would obviously love it.”

We had been walking through the school for a bit, looking out for any strange creature. Techna continues to search for it mentally, but it’s a bit difficult to narrow the whereabouts since the creature keeps moving. Until then, we’ve been talking about what the creature could be, and then somehow got to the topics of realms.

“The Capital sounds really important,” I point out. “Do all realms have Capitals?”

“Nope,” Stella explains. “Only the more foreign realms do, and the empires. Flora and I live in kingdoms. The area around the palace are  _ capitals _ , but not with the capital C. The difference between more mainstream capitals and foreign Capitals are the people who live there and their style. Take Harmonica for example: it’s Capital is called Melody, and all the people who live there are rich and successful or connected to Emperor Ho-Boe in some way.”

“Ho-Boe’s my dad,” Musa explains. “He’s cool and all, but he has his quirks.”

“It’s kinda the same with Techna’s realm.  _ Zenith _ . That place is very known for its technology, scientific discoveries, and creative means of medicine. According to some gossip columns, the doctors there cut off people’s limbs and replace them with cyborg parts.”

I gape. Like in one of those sci-fi movies?

“She is not all too correct, Bloom,” Techna corrects. “The doctors there only do that sort of thing if ‘tis requested or absolutely necessary. But Zenith is not all what ‘tis made out to be. Especially to—” But she’s completely cut off when she slams straight into something, causing her to fall onto her butt. At first, it seemed like a wall, but then….

“I believe we have found what we are looking for.”

Standing there, tall as hell, hunched over, covered in blue fur, drool escaping its agape mouth, large, dangerous horns on its head, wearing unflattering red pants, feet curved with hooves like a goat, and beady black eyes is what seems like a minotaur. It turns around, staring at us for a moment, seemingly to not know what to do, and I think about running, but before we make any decisions, the minotaur lets out a mighty roar, curling its hands into fists and growls at us, eyes intent on murder.

“That’s nice and all, but I don’t think we should stick around…” I reply, trying not to freak out. “Run.”

And we bolt just as the minotaur begins to charge at us. I never thought in my  _ life  _ that I would ever see a  _ minotaur _ . I didn’t think they existed even in this universe! And how did it get out? I don’t think any of the teachers just have a pet minotaur lying around (though I wouldn’t put it past Wizgiz; he is a bit weird), because if they did, wouldn’t they keep it locked up or warn us? And a  _ minotaur _ ? Really?

The minotaur is quick on its feet. It’s not that slow, so we can’t afford to slow down. It’s so much harder to outrun it since our powers are suspended, meaning we can’t speed ourselves up or fly. We end up splitting up: Flora and Stella into an upper wing; Musa, Techna, and I down a lower floor. Unfortunately, the minotaur decided to go our route, but Flora and Stella should be safe.

I’m slowly getting tired, and my running has slowed down. The minotaur takes his chance to try to get me by charging at me with its horns, but I slip out of the way before he can do any damage. He slams right into the wall, getting his horns stuck, but he’s cornered by Techna, who seems to be figuring out how to get herself out of the situation before the minotaur can get itself out, but it’s too late by then. It pulls itself out, prepared to impale her with its horns, but Techna is just as intelligent. A strange flash appears from her arm, and she pulls it back to punch the minotaur far away enough from her to make her escape. There’s another flash, and Techna’s running over to me.

“How did you do that?” I ask breathlessly. “I thought we didn’t have magic.”

“‘Tis not magic,” Techna replies quickly.

“Then, how—”

“Where is Musa?”

I turn my head. The minotaur had recovered from Techna’s attack, but now had its eye on Musa, who isn’t paying attention. “ _ Musa _ !” I yell, trying to grab her attention. She turns, hearing me, but I’m not fast enough. The minotaur charges, slamming right into her, throwing her all the way into the hallway. Fortunately, it didn’t use its horns, but I know that would be painful nonetheless.

The minotaur turns its attention towards Techna and I again, but before it can do any more damage, a boomerang comes flying right towards it, smacking it right on its neck. It roars in pain and anger, turning its head. We do the same. 

The Specialists have shown up again, with Flora and Stella following behind them. Flora has a protective arm around Musa, whose side of face is an angry red. She looks a bit disgruntled, but otherwise okay. She glances at Riven as they walk towards us.

“So  _ this  _ is what’s ruining the party?” Riven asks, smirking. “Now  _ this  _ is going to be entertaining.” He takes out his curved sword, running towards it, slashing at its stomach, evidently trying to subdue it. His attacks are only successful at making it angrier. The minotaur takes its strong arms, swiping at him, but its attacks are just as useless as Riven’s, as Riven is much smaller than the minotaur is, meaning he’s able to avoid its plays by jumping completely out of the way.

“It’s not going to work if only one of us fights it,” Brandon explains, taking out his own sword. “We’re going to have to co—”

“Here you go about your whole  _ friendship  _ and  _ harmony  _ bullsh*t. Listen, here, Brandon. That thing doesn’t seem so tough; the only reason the fairies couldn’t fight it is because they don’t have their little fairy powers right now. I don’t need powers to fight. You should stay back and take care of that prince of yours; his parents won’t be too happy if they find out their precious prince got pummeled to death. Leave it to me.” 

“This definitely reminds me of the troll incident,” Sky mutters.

Riven swings forward to get another attack in, and the others join in as well to fight it. Riven’s too busy complaining about the others trying to help him to notice the fist coming straight towards his face. He can’t avoid it and goes flying straight out of the window into an unknown area. I feel slightly bad, but not all too bad.

The remaining Specialists attack it with everything they got. Brandon slashes from all sides with his sword; Sky goes straight for the legs with his spear; Timmy attacks the minotaur’s face with his blaster, but it’s definitely not enough. The minotaur overpowers them quickly, throwing them all the ground and inflicting pain in retaliation for the fighting they put upon it.

Techna’s head snaps up, looking around. 

“What is it?” Flora asks.

“There are more beings present. They are not too far away at all, and they are most definitely human.”

“How many are there?” Stella questions.

“Three, to be exact.”

That sparks a realization. I turn my head towards Flora. “You don’t think…”

“If they did, it wouldn’t be out of their league,” Stella chimes in, referring to the Trix. “They probably got mad because I got my ring back, and now they’re here to kill us.”

“They’ve  _ been  _ trying to kill us, Stella,” Musa retorts. “More you than us, though.”

“How far away are they?” I ask Techna.

“They would have to be somewhere out there…” She points towards the left area, through the window Riven was launched through. Did the witches find him?

Our attention is turned back towards the minotaur vs. Specialists battle, and it’s pretty clear who is winning. The boys are sprawled on the ground, doubled over in pain. Brandon attempts to keep fighting, but the minotaur is just pushing them back as if it’s nothing now. If we don’t do something soon, the boys are gonna get themselves killed.

_ Think, Bloom,  _ **_think_ ** . I’m pretty good at thinking on my feet. We’re all powerless right now, so there’s barely anything we can do. There’s nothing here that I can use to effectively  _ do  _ anything. What can I—

The idea hits me like a truck. “Girls, I have an idea. But the only way it’s gonna work is if you guys distract it for a bit.”

“ _ Distract it _ ?” Stella asks incredulously.

“Bloom, what are you planning?” Flora asks.

“You’ll see. Just give me a minute. Just keep it in this same area and  _ away  _ from the boys. I dunno how much they can take. I’ll be back.”

“You’re not planning on dipping on us, are you?” Musa questions, glaring at me.

"I’m  _ not _ ,” I explain, harsher than intended. “Just  _ trust me _ .” Before another question is asked, I run out of the hallway, down the stairs, down another long flight of stairs, into a double hallway, and finally make my way into the kitchens. They’re as spotless as they were when we finished cleaning it. I’m out of breath as I take some pots and pans, sticking some underneath my armpits, filling my arms with them. I’m about to leave when I notice a bottle of detergent in the sink, and another idea pops into my brain. I take it, dropping into the pot, then running back out of the kitchens, into the double hallway, up the long flight of stairs, up the stairs, and back into the kitchens. The girls are all over the walls, trying to avoid getting hit. They’re ducking, covering, rolling, anything to distract it. I quietly stand over by the exit, catching the eye of Musa, who gives me a questioning look. I bring a finger to my lips, telling her to keep quiet, and I pop open the bottle of detergent, spilling it onto the ground, travelling down the stairs, and stopping when there’s no more soap. I place a vase right in the middle, careful to place the flowers inside another place (because Flora would kill me if the plants got hurt), hoping my plan would be a success.

I remove all the pans I have on my body and begin clanging them obnoxiously, trying to get the minotaur to notice. It alerts everyone, and I look straight at the beast. “Come on! Why get all of them when you could just get me?”

“Bloom…” Flora warns.

The minotaur roars, charging towards me. Right as it’s about to impale me with its horns, I swerve out of the way, causing it to begin slipping on the soap I placed. I push it down the stairs, watching it go crashing on downwards into the hallway, hitting its head on the vase and coming to a harsh stop in the middle. It stopped moving.

My heart begins to calm down. I don’t think the minotaur is dead, just incapacitated. The other girls come towards me, looking at the unconscious body of the minotaur. Stella thumps me on the back. “Smart move, girl!”

Suddenly, there’s movement in the hair of the minotaur. At first, I think it’s a second wave or something the minotaur’s gonna use to fight us with, but instead, a small, gray duck comes waddling out of there, very dizzy and confused, falling flat on its face. Flora kneels down to pick it up, stroking its small head. “The Trix are definitely here.”

“How would you know that?” I ask. 

“Remember the welcoming dance,” she explains, “when the Trix cursed the presents the Specialists were going to give us? Their plan was to distract us so they could take Stella’s ring, so in retaliation, Musa and I fooled them into taking the wrong box. In the box  _ they  _ took, a small, baby duckling had been born and didn’t have a mother. Whichever witch opened the box, the duckling must consider her its mother. Poor thing.” She strokes its head.

I walk over towards the boys, who are slowly recovering. “You good?” I ask, helping Brandon up.

I can practically see the cartoon birds flying around his head. He shakes his head, trying to get his vision back together. “Yeah, I’m fine for the most part.” He turns his head towards the other boys. “Are you guys okay?”

“My spleen is tingling, but I think I’ll be fine.” Sky picks himself up. “Is Riven okay?”

“ _ Riven  _ is fine.” Riven comes crawling through the broken window, bruised and scratched, holding his left arm. “Today’s just not my lucky day, is it?”

“Everyday doesn’t seem like a lucky day for you, Riven.” Sky laughs lightly.

“What are we gonna do about  _ that _ ?” Stella asks, pointing at the minotaur and covering her nose. “It smells atrocious.”

“We’re going to have to leave it there. I’ll tell Griselda about the incident,” Flora explains. “But for now, we’re going to have to move on.”

“The Trix are still here, right?” I ask Techna.

She nods. “Affirmative. But they’re moving around at quite a fast rate, and I can barely sense their signatures.”

I think for a moment. “We should head into Faragonda’s office.”

I get blank stares. “What?” asks Musa.

“Don’t look at me like that. Faragonda’s office is the largest place of magic I can think of. We can hide in there, and there’s guaranteed something we can use against the Trix.”

“Uh uh, we’re going to  _ hide _ ?” Riven hisses. “What is with you fairies and cowardice?”

“I wouldn’t say it’s cowardice, Riven,” Timmy says. “None of us are in any good shape to fight the witches. It might be the smartest thing to do.”

Riven scoffs and rolls his eyes, but it doesn’t bother any of us. “Let’s go,” I command, walking over the minotaur and heading out.

* * *

Faragonda’s office is still as beautiful as it was when I first went there and when we get reprimanded, even at night!

The gold patterns, the over-excited colors… And not to mention there’s such a strong energy force here. 

“Ew, it reeks of fairy,” Riven complains.

“If you complain about fairies one more time, I’m going to wrap my hands around your neck and strangle you,” Musa warns. Flora gives her a disapproving look.

“This is a total upgrade from Saladin’s office,” Sky explains. “It’s just so lifeless, and creepy Helia doesn’t make it better.”

“I wouldn’t call Helia creepy,” Timmy cuts in. “Just… Very Helia-like.”

“Very Helia-like?” Brandon asks snorting.

“I dunno how you would describe him! I don’t think there’s a word that means strange, a bit unsettling, and weird at the same time.”

“Who’s Helia?” I ask.

“He’s Saladin’s great-grandson,” Sky explains. “He’s a year younger than us, but hangs out on campus. He doesn’t talk much; only when addressed. He’s pretty emo.”

“Everybody  _ hush _ ,” Musa hisses, her ear to the wall. “The Trix are talking.”

I would like to point out that each of the girls have a certain ability that they’ve had since birth and can’t be taken away from them, even if their magic is suspended. Stella glows when she’s happy; Flora can communicate with plants; Musa has really good hearing; and Techna can sense people growing near. If you were wondering.

“What are they saying?” I ask.

“They’re talking about…” Musa purses her lips. “Okay, so Stormy’s complaining that they could just go get Stella’s ring and go, but Icy’s saying that the power they’re looking for is multiple times stronger. Darcy’s debunking this, but Icy sounds like she’s going to murder her.”

“Typical Icy,” Stella says. “She’s the youngest of the Trix month-wise, but calls the shots. I think it’s because the others are scared of her.”

“Not surprising,” I reply. “Her magic  _ hurts _ .”

“They’re coming this way,” Musa continues. “It seems like they’re using a tracker or something. Stormy’s commenting on how the power is conveniently located in Faragonda’s office, and Icy recommends they search the entire place if she’s hiding  _ more  _ secret powers or whatever. Darcy wants to be inconspicuous, though.”

“Darcy’s the more level-headed of the group,” says Stella. “She may be evil, but she has standards.”

“And now, they’re almost here!” Musa cries. “Hide!” 

We nearly don’t hide in time. The Trix comes floating in, three strange magical objects floating in front of them. The objects are glowing quite brightly, and Icy looks around the place. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s trash it.”

“I don’t think so,” a new voice says, coming from right behind them. From my place behind the desk, I can see the familiar figure of Headmistress Faragonda staring at them, her hands on her hips. “I dunno who gave you permission to be in here, ladies.”

She turns the lights on. Icy turns her head towards Darcy, an angry expression on her face. “I thought you said this place was empty except for a few fairies!”

“They must’ve come back,” Darcy explains. I turn my head to look out the window. Yep. There are a bunch of students, looking tired, coming back into the school.

“It doesn’t matter if it were empty or not,” Faragonda scolds. “No one is allowed in my office without my permission, especially Cloud Tower witches. And that  _ also  _ goes for a few boys from Red Fountain and some of my girls.”

How did she…? We all come popping out of our hiding places. If looks could kill, we’d all be dead right now. Icy has an expression of pure anger. In the corner of my eye, I can see Flora letting go of the small duckling, watching it waddle over towards Icy. She growls, hitting it with a powerful ice spell, trapping it in ice.

* * *

The Trix get thoroughly chewed out by Griselda for sneaking onto the grounds and causing chaos throughout the school. They’re sent back to Cloud Tower, and things seem fine. ...for the most part.

The boys leave a few minutes after the Trix do. Fortunately for them, they were applauded for helping us and making sure the school was okay, so they got a positive review from her to Headmaster Saladin. 

And now, Griselda and Faragonda are talking to us now.

“I am sorry this had to happen,” Faragonda explains solemnly. “I shouldn’t be surprised if some Cloud Tower witches are doing this. I applaud you for your bravery, girls.”

We stay quiet.

She clears her throat, trying to get Griselda’s attention. Griselda’s face scrunches, and she exhales exasperatedly. “And I saw your cleaning of the school. It was...adequate. But I never said you could ask help from the boys—”

“ _ Griselda _ .” Faragonda gives her a warning look.

Griselda sighs again. “You...did well. Regardless of help. And for that, we award you your powers unsuspended.” She walks forward, the room going silent. It’s the same spell she used to take our powers away, except different. The air becomes stronger and stronger… Until it stops, and something inside me doesn’t feel so empty anymore.

Stella makes a small light in her palm. “It’s back!” A glow resonates from her. “Oh, how I’ve missed you!”

Faragonda smiles warmly. “Now, go on. Go get some sleep. You have another week of classes to do.”

“I was gonna sleep no matter  _ what  _ she said!” Musa cheers.

They all file out of the office. I’m the last to exit, but before I go, I contemplate asking Faragonda about Daphne… But I don’t, because I think I need a break. 

If she appears again, I’ll know something isn’t right.

* * *

“Griselda?” Faragonda sips her tea lightly, addressing her partner. Griselda had always been there for her. She considered her her closest companion and had been alongside her for… Ha! Faragonda couldn’t even remember how long they had been acquainted, let alone  _ how exactly _ . But she remembered Griselda being a student. The small, yet angry student, who would stop at nothing to achieve greatness and become a full-fledged fairy. And Faragonda had supported her fully, watching her grow into a strong and wonderful fairy. The headmistress didn’t know what she’d do without her.

“Yes, Faragonda?” Griselda asks, stopping her cleaning of the desk.

“Do you think…the young ladies who were in my office were...who we  _ think  _ they are?”

Griselda thinks for a moment. “It could be the case, but we don’t know for sure. And besides, even if they  _ are  _ the descendants, they most likely won’t  _ do  _ anything. The others that have come before them haven’t caused any trouble. In fact, I spoke with Madame Oravill the other day, and she says that the witch bloodline of their family is slowly fading out.”

“Yes, but Madame Oravill isn’t directly related to any of them. She’s a third cousin, I think. They’re bound to have some changes to their bloodline. But when those girls were here, they had this strange negative vibe from them. The same type that came from the Ancestral Witches all those years ago.”

Griselda seems to quiver at that. She looks away. “Let’s not think about that right now, ma’am. We have too much to do. We have to prepare for exams soon, you know.”

Faragonda nods absentmindedly. She looks outwards. “Miss Peters has become increasingly interested in Princess Daphne.”

“Princess Daphne?” Griselda asks. “Why her?”

Faragonda hesitates. “I gave her an idea in her head when I asked her about the princess. Miss Peters had wanted to know where her powers came from, and… The suspicion I had when she first arrived  seemed to power itself up. She says she’s only heard of her, giving me a sense that she might not be related to her, but… Who knows?”

“You worry too much, ma’am,” Griselda says. “Let’s get back to work, shall we?”

Faragonda nods. “Alright, Griselda.” But things were not alright. There were too many things that were starting to piece together, and none of them were  _ good  _ things.

If Miss Peters and Daphne are… Faragonda can’t think of it too much. But if her suspicions are correct, and those witches are who she thinks they are…

It could spell disaster for the entire Magic Dimension.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)


	8. Roses, Races, and Riven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Magix has its 200th birthday, Mirta deals with her failed witchery, Riven is just as bitchy as normal, and Bloom is one terrible baby sitter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> accidentally added a new character in the story, but that's fine. he's fine.
> 
> and helia's here. mostly because he's my second favorite specialist, and i wanted him here.

**I** f Mirta works anymore, she thinks her brain might explode.

She inhales and exhales softly, putting down her pencil, leaning back in her chair, and taking the paper from her desk. Her notes were nothing impressive; lots of scratched out words, bad erasing, and writing so small that she herself sometimes couldn’t even read it. But she knew what she had written this time; her hand aches and burns as if the words had been nailed into the skin. 

Her Pre-Witchery book is wide open next to her cup of pencils, the final page of 394. Mirta Oravill had read three hundred, ninety-four pages in about six hours nonstop. And she didn’t regret it, either. She looks back at her piles of papers, filled with notes she had taken from this very book. She was not sure, but maybe the notes would help her. After all, this class was her lowest grade ( _D_ for _Dreadful_ ), and if she could improve this one, she could improve the rest of her classes.  
  
Mirta was no good at witching like her fellow peers. The other witches she knew came from important wizards and mages, all having possessed the knowledge of the dark art for millennia, being important people. Mirta was no different from the rest of them; she had come down the line of the Ancestia, the greatest witch coven in the history of the Magic Dimension. It was also the darkest, the grimmest, the evilest coven of them all, and the coven of the Ancestral Witches.

She feels a shiver go down her spine, and she relaxes a bit more. She’s done working for today. It’s nearly the weekend, now. She would have a break to chill out, not do anything, and certainly not worry about her heritage.  
  
But there was never a time when she _didn’t_ worry about it. She was constantly reminded of it. The Ancestral Witches may be evil, yes, but they had been gone for thousands of years. The new generation had forgotten about them and were now trying to turn over a new leaf. Her mother certainly thought so, but she still loved the witch bloodline they had, and people in their family were beginning to show no signs of witch blood in them at all. The beautiful Madame Oravill didn’t like this at all, so she had begun forcing the witch belief on her own children, including Mirta. Magic doctors had mentioned that Mirta might not be a witch at all, but Madame refused to listen. She enrolled Mirta for Cloud Tower without another thought.

So now, here we are back with Mirta, tired and in her room, feeling dreary. 

She runs a stressed hand through her red hair. She taps her fingers against her desk, wondering what it would be like at Alfea. 

Cloud Tower is a grand school, yes, but it’s nothing impressive. Especially for Mirta. Most students who attended one of the three Magix schools would call the schools something of a second home, but Mirta didn’t feel this way about the school at all. On the contrary. She counts the days when she can go home and forget about studies and general witchery for a few weeks. But the winter break was still a few weeks away, even as the air cooled, and the first signs of snow began to show.

Mirta did not feel like a witch, that was for certain. And sometimes, she didn’t refer to herself as one. Just a human with dark magic. Not a witch. And at times, her magic didn’t feel _dark_. Unlike the other witches in her class, her magic had a light feel to it, despite her element being presumed one of dark magic. And the other witches didn’t like that at all. To some, it reminded them of fairy magic, and witches and fairies didn’t typically mix. Mirta never saw anything wrong with fairies, but her opinions never seemed to be listened to. The other person who would even try at showing her kindness and respect was—

“Mirta! Mirta, guess what?” 

Mirta nearly topples out of her spinny chair. She turns her head to her best friend, Lucy Hallowshade. Lucy bounces in her step, with a goofy, excited expression on her face that Mirta always considers adorable. But she also knows that if she doesn’t ask, Lucy might explode. Literally. “What is it?” Mirta gasps. “Did Professor Zarathrusta give you a P on your Necromancy essay?” She smiles. “See, Lucy, I knew you could do it!”

Lucy shakes her head. “Even better.”

Mirta thinks for a moment. “I dunno what would be better than that. Spell it.”

“Some of the upperclassmen asked me to hang out with them in Magix today to go to the Bicentennial. Isn’t that amazing? It’s the first step to joining popularity. And just think! maybe soon, I’ll be on the same level as the Trix.”

Mirta sighs. “Nobody can get on _their_ level of popularity, Lucy.”

Lucy waves a dismissive hand. “I know that. But still, just a _little_ under it will still be satisfiable. _And_ I pulled a few strings, and you get to go with me! You and I could be together! Just think: the _princesses_ of Cloud Tower: Mirta Oravill and Lucy Hallowshade. It sounds amazing, don’t you think?”

Mirta’s cheeks grow warm under the hopeful gaze of Lucy. Pushing possibly unrequited feelings down, she gives her friend a sad smile. “Sorry, Lucy, but I can’t go.”

Lucy’s expression drops. “Why not?”

Mirta raises her notes up, along with her open textbook. “Studying. If I don’t study, I can fail this class, and you know how the teachers are about failure.” She swallows down the temptation to mention how her _mother_ might feel if she failed.

“Oh, come on!” Lucy kneels next to her, taking her hand. If Lucy noticed the blush on Mirta’s cheeks, she didn’t say anything. “It’ll be weird without you there! It’s the weekend; you can study some other time.”

“But Lucy…” Mirta sighs. “You _know_ I don’t want to fail. I must stay here and study. I’m sorry.”

Lucy shrugs and sits down on Mirta’s bed. “Yeah, yeah, I know. But it’s gonna be weird without you.” 

Mirta smiles. “It’ll be fine. Have fun.”

Lucy turns away, and Mirta feels a bit bolder. “Hey, Lucy.”

Lucy turns around, an eyebrow raised. Under the gaze, Mirta can’t bear to say anything. Lucy is her best friend. Has been for so long. She’s the only one who stands by her whenever things get rough, and they tended to be that way especially now that she was at Cloud Tower with not-so-friendly peers and teachers. If she told her how she felt… No. Can’t risk it.

“Don’t forget to take your coat, okay? It’s gonna be chillier than usual. I heard the forecast.”

Lucy nods, leaving the room and Mirta all alone. She groans, contemplating on napping, when she hears something loud hit the wall. She turns her head towards the wall. This was to be expected since her apartment was right next to the Trix’s. She couldn’t get away from them for a second. Being the most intimidating witches at the school had its perks, but the three of them seemed to be on edge recently. And Mirta, despite not being the bravest one, couldn’t resist seeing what this time was up. Last time, Stormy nearly had a mental breakdown over a homework assignment, and it was slightly entertaining to listen to their conversation. Mirta conjures up a spell from memory, using an X-Ray spell to see through the wall.

The Trix are huddled around the living room, Icy looking crazier than usual. Even the other two witches were afraid of her.

“Icy, I think you need to calm down. Chill out,” Darcy suggests calmly, but Icy’s not having it.

“I don’t _need_ to calm down. _This_ is a serious matter. We’ll be graduating from this _dump heap_ in less than a year. If we don’t get Stella’s power before then, we’ll have achieved _nothing_.”

“We _could_ just do what we did beforehand,” Stormy says. “Remember? when we kidnapped Stella and held her for ransom? We can do that again. The other fairies cooperated.” 

Mirta gapes.

“Yes, but the fairies are smart,” Darcy points out. “They won’t fall for the same thing twice.”

“Or won’t they…?” Icy thinks for a moment. “We could do something like that—except we wouldn’t kidnap anybody. Just trick them into doing something… And we can try to brew a truth potion to get Stella to tell us how to take the power from the ring… But truth potions are tricky. I’ll have to do some major studying.”

“Wait, wait, wait. We can’t get anything done if we’re stressed.” Darcy sighs. “Let’s just go to the Bicentennial today. We can take our minds off everything and maybe even brainstorm some ideas.”

There’s no argument. Icy’s quiet. “ _Fine_. But tomorrow, I am _looking_ for a spellbook or something that’ll help us out. I am _not_ failing. I’ve never failed anything before, and I am not going to _fail anything now_.”

The other Trix are quiet, and Mirta disables the spell. Should she be worried? The Trix are none for their witchery and trouble they cause. What would they do? Would they hurt Lucy? What of Stella? 

It’s too much to think about. Maybe she would go to the Bicentennial. Just for safety.

* * *

Maybe I’m thinking too much of it, but does Brandon’s asking me to the Bicentennial seem like him asking me out? 

Okay, okay. Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. He said that Sky, Riven, and Helia are going as well, and Sky asked Stella to go, and she said yes, so it would be more like a hangout than a date, but….

Oh, come on! It still _kinda_ feels like a date! 

Okay, okay, okay. I’m calming down. It’s just a festival. There’s nothing to it. _But maybeeee_.

Okay, I’m shutting up now!

Flora sips a bit of her tea and gives me a knowing look. “Did Brandon ask you out?”

“I mean, I dunno,” I say. “He asked me to go with him and his friends—plus Helia—to the festival. Does that seem like a date to you, or am I overthinking it?”

Flora shrugs. “It’s your interpretation. In my opinion, dates are intimate. Romantic. And alone. Not usually surrounded by fellow classmates.”

She’s right. Okay, so maybe not a date. “And dates don’t usually involve babysitting.”

Flora raises an eyebrow for me to elaborate.

“Oh! Brandon, Sky, and Riven were asked to take Helia with them to the festival. They’re supposed to keep an eye on him for the headmaster at Red Fountain.”

Flora frowns. “Isn’t that boy only one year your junior? Don’t call that babysitting.”

“Hey, Sky’s words, not mine.” Though, from the pictures they send me of him, I can tell how he would look a _lot_ younger than one year younger than us. He’s short, with long, gray (it’s gray. Not _blond, gray_. Like— _gray_ , gray) hair, and a baby face that makes me not take him seriously, despite being completely stoic in all the pictures I see. 

“Maybe you’re interpreting Brandon’s invitation as a date because _you_ really want him to ask you out,” Flora suggests.

“Uh, _yeah I want him to ask me out_. He’s cute as hell!” Maybe even cuter than Andy. “I kinda want to be bold and ask him out myself, but Stella says that’s a sign of desperation, and I should let _him_ come to _me_.” Stella might not have good judgment on a lot of things, but Stella’s been in more _magical_ relationships than _me_. If Brandon and I don’t work out, I’ll stick with my own intuition. “Speaking of Stella, where is she?”

“She’s in her room right now. She could be getting ready.”

I nod in understanding, moving from the couch over to Stella’s door. I knock first, slowly opening the door, when I hear voices.

“Maybe you’re being too harsh. These things happen, Mom.”

“I know, but I can’t stand this any longer. If I must hear him call me a Moon’s *ss one more time, I think I might lose my stars. Do you understand, Stella?”

I look through the doorway. Stella’s sitting at her desk, her phone resting on the tabletop, revealing a hologram of the torso of a woman with long, light blonde hair, hazel eyes that resemble Stella’s, and a tired look on her face. Stella’s mother.

“But both of you are equally wrong towards each other. You’re called a Moon’s *ss, you call him a Sunny Bastard and so on and so forth. But you always make up in the end. What’s different now?” 

The tone in Stella’s voice worries me. She sounds stressed, pleading. 

“It’s been going on _too long_ , Stella, dear. Seventeen years of it. I should’ve left him a long time ago, but I didn’t take that chance. Now the chance has reemerged, and I’m taking it. Your father has shown he cares nothing for me, and I’m going to get out of his hair if he really wants that.”

It’s silent. 

“But… Where will you go? Once the process is over—which won’t be easy—you won’t be able to stay at the palace. You won’t be able to stay with me.”

“The Sunspot Estate. Remember? The place we used to go during the summer. It belongs to my family, so I have full ownership of it. I’ve already been talking about getting it refurbished to be less of a holiday area and more of a living area. You’ll always be able to visit me, Stella. I’m not leaving you.”

Stella looks down at the ground. She opens her mouth to say something, but closes it, seemingly changing her mind about it.

“I know it’ll be hard, my starlight, but the only thing that’ll change is my place in the royal court. I’ll still be my queen, just not a _present_ queen, if you understand. It’s not like I’m leaving forever.”

Stella doesn’t respond to that.

“I have to go now. Lots of things to get to. Today’s the Magix Bicentennial, right?”

Stella nods.

“You should go to that festival. It sounds like lots of fun! It’ll take your mind off it. None of this is for you to worry yourself over. Everything will be fine. Take lots of pictures for me, alright?”

Stella sighs. “Alright.”

“Okay. Bye, darling.” 

“Bye, Mom.” And with that, Stella presses the _end call_ button, and the hologram disappears. I’m suddenly aware of my eavesdropping and remember what I’m here for, but I decide against asking. 

“Stella…?” I ask, trying to get her attention. She nearly jumps, placing a hand on her heart when she sees it’s me. “ _Dragons_ , Bloom! You nearly killed me!”

“Sorry, Stella. I thought you sorta knew I was there.”

“Well, I didn’t! You probably just shortened my lifespan by ten years!” She groans exasperatedly, grabbing her magenta, fur coat from the side of her room. “Do you _neeed_ something?” 

“Uh, I was gonna ask for your input on… Stella, are you okay?” I ask. She’s brushing it all off. Just in case she wants to talk about it, I can do a Flora and just sit down and talk about our problems.

“Yeah.” Snow laughs a little. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because… I kinda overheard your conversation with your mom. Is there...something you wanna talk about?”

Stella stops what she’s doing but doesn’t look at me. After a long pause, she says, “Yeah, I wanna talk about it. But not now. Today’s supposed to be fun. We can talk about it later.”

I raise an eyebrow.

“ _Anyway_!” she cries, spinning around to face me. “ _Soooo_ , the Bicentennial Festival is today. Isn’t it exciting?”

I nod, deciding to comply with her wishes to put her problems to the side. “Brandon asked me to go with you all. I was _kiiinda_ thinking it was a date, hehe.” 

“The festival? A date? Oh, no, not with the others and me. Maybe you two can go do something together on your own. _Then_ , it would be considered a date.” She winks. She suddenly gets an idea. “I could just get you two alone together. I’ll ask Sky for some help. Skoom has been on my mind for a while now.” She pulls out her phone. 

“Are Flora, Musa, and Techna not going?” I ask. Brandon only mentioned Stella, Helia, Sky, and Riven. None of the others.

Stella shakes her head, still looking at her phone. “Flora’s staying with Musa since today’s _Lost Song_ day, and Musa might need someone there. And Techna’s hanging out with Timmy; I asked if she wanted to go, but she does _not_ like full gatherings and festivals and parties. She’s an interesting individual. Heh.”

“What’s _Lost Song_ day?” 

“Basically, a day to celebrate the dead in Harmonica,” Flora’s voice explains. I spin around to see her standing there. “It also includes Musa’s mother, so it’s a day to mourn. But we’re having _technical difficulties_ since Techna’s been messing around with the Wi-Fi, and now Musa can’t get on the call with her father.”

A frustrated call of, “ _Dammit, Techna_!” makes me laugh.

Flora places a hand over her mouth as she laughs. “I wish I could go, but I want to be there for Musa. It’s hard for her.”

“You’re such a mom, Flora. I’m going to buy you a _Mom-of-the-Year_ mug.”

Flora smiles. “That would be nice of you.”

“Oh, and Bloom.” I blink rapidly hearing my name. “I have a cute outfit I picked out for you. Comfortable and cozy. And I made sure it made your eyes pop.” She points to this outfit on her dresser. I take it, examining it. It’s simple, but cute. I head into her large (and _clean_!) bathroom, changing into it quickly. It’s a plain, blue T-Shirt, with skinny jeans, and black and blue tennis shoes. It reminds me of something Musa would wear. Stella even lent me some white earrings. 

After fixing my hair a little, I head back out. Stella looks at me with approval. She’s wearing her off-the-shoulder, orange sweater, with ripped jeans and boots. We’re both looking super cute. 

Stella’s phone chimes. “Oh! The boys and Helia are here. Come on! You’re gonna love it.” She takes my hand, running out of the room. I quickly wave goodbye to Flora, and we head outside. “I’ve never been to one of the Magix festivals,” Stella continues, “but I’ve seen pictures, and they look _amazing_. Maybe even better than the ones on Solaria.”

The familiar Red Fountain ship is placed not-so-modestly outside the gates. Sky and Brandon wait outside, dressed cozily as well. Brandon dressed in blue plaid and white khakis, and Sky in a green sweatshirt and black shoes. Brandon waves at me when he sees me, and Sky doesn’t even notice we’re there until Brandon hits him on the arm. “Whattup, ladies?” he asks, winking at Stella. “Glad it didn’t take you so long to get ready.”

“Sky, as much as you like talking about us ladies, you spend more time on your hair than I do. Don’t be hypocritical, dearest.”

“We’ve already been down to Magix, and it’s _packed_. I don’t think I’ve seen so many people in one area before,” Brandon explains. “From what I’ve heard from some citizens, they’re gonna set off fireworks tonight.”

“Like a Fourth of July party?” I ask, but the blank looks make me facepalm. “Forgot. Not from Earth. Don’t worry about it.” My eye catches sight of a person in the window, looking down at all of us. From the look alone, I can assume it’s Helia, and when he notices me staring, he moves away. Brandons sees me watching. “Oh, and we’re watching Helia.”

“And we’re not even getting _paid_ ,” Sky groans. “I thought babysitting meant getting _paid_.”

“You’re the prince, aren’t you? You’re loaded; I don’t think a non-paying job is gonna kill you,” I say.

“I know, but my parents only gave me so much. And I would like my hard work acknowledged.” He pouts. Brandon rolls his eyes.

“You’re not even the one watching him, Sky; I dunno what you’re complaining about.” He laughs, but a loud honk from the ship alerts him. A voice from the intercom calls, “ _Stop socializing with the fairies, and get on the damn ship_!” 

“Is this him on a good day or a bad day?” I ask Brandon, raising an eyebrow.

“Eh. Undetermined,” he explains. “He woke up less than two hours ago, and Riven isn’t all too pleasant if you wake him up too early. Believe me; I’ve learned my lesson.”

I giggle a little. I look up to see if the person in the window has returned, but there’s no one there. I turn my head towards the other two, and Sky has knelt on a knee and has taken Stella’s hand in a formal fashion. “You’re looking as radiant as ever, Princess Stella.”

Stella blushes as he kisses her hand, a glow emitting from her body. “And I, you, Prince Sky. I always did like green on you.”

“I know you do; it’s why I chose it.” Sky smirks, and Stella leans closer to him. Before they can get anywhere, the intercom goes off again, “ _Can we at least get to the festival before you two start eating each other’s faces off? I **just** ate_!”

“Riven might actually kill us if we don’t get on,” says Brandon. “Let’s go.”

Seeing the two of them together makes me wonder if I should _subtly_ ask Brandon out, but we’re moving into the ship, and I kinda want it to be slightly more private.

Riven _looks_ like he just woke up, too. He’s leaning on the control panel, looking tired, and his hair is unkempt. Next to him is Helia, looking at us curiously, but not saying anything. He stares at me especially, and I’m getting a bit uncomfortable. I shift a little, walking over to one of the spare chairs, and the minute the front closes, the ship takes off, and I nearly bust my head falling off the chair.

“You know, maybe Timmy’s a better driver than you are, Riven,” Sky says. “I think you’ve hit three birds already.”

“Collateral damage, and I’m sorry that my brain isn’t too awake to _drive properly_. Maybe next time, you could let me sleep for a _liiiitle_ while longer.”

Brandon leans next to me and whispers, “ _Bad mood Riven_.”

I giggle a little. 

I sit back, watching the area around me zoom past. The forest leading into the Black Mud has changed considerably since we took that field trip there. Everything feels so long ago, when really, it’s just been more than several weeks. The trees have switched from their leafy green color and have turned to an assortment of browns and oranges, reminding me of those images on the internet that you’ll find if you look up, _beautiful autumn forest_. It’s amazing to me how I’m in a whole ‘nother dimension, but everything feels and reminds me of Earth. If it wasn’t for the magical aspect of it all and how I’m literally in a futuristic, flying spacecraft, I probably would’ve mistaken this for a regular wonderland.

Stella’s distracted on her phone. She’s usually up and talking, but she’s frowning at it, obviously texting someone. I guarantee it had something to do with the conversation she had that morning, but I don't want to elaborate on it. I don’t want to spoil her day as it already is.

“Hey.”

I turn my head. Brandon’s looking at me, an eyebrow raised in concern. “You okay?”  
  
“Yeah. Fine. Just thinking.”

Brandon nods in understanding. After a brief silence, he continues. “You know, you’re going to love it, the festival. There’s going to be a parade, food, music, full of magical history. Of course, Magix would go all out with this: it’s the greatest city in all the Magic Dimension, not even an opinion!”

“Whoa…” I imagine it in my head, but I know I won’t have to, since we’re nearing Magix anyway. I can already hear the music. “You know, Magix kinda reminds me of a magic New York.”

Brandon raises an eyebrow, wanting me to elaborate. 

“You see, I live in this area—on Earth—and there’s this one city called New York. I mean, it’s also a state, but whatever. I wouldn’t say it’s the greatest city, but it’s high up. Before this whole magic thing happened, I had dreams of going off and... doing something meaningful with my life.”

“I mean, you still can’t do that now?”

“Well, I _want to_. But who needs New York City when you have _this_? An entire _dimension_ in a world you never knew existed. It seems so much more interesting. And besides, I don’t like city noise too much. My grandma used to live in this bigger city, and it was hard to sleep when there were car alarms and annoying neighbors keeping you up all night.”

He laughs. It’s genuine, too, and I can feel my heart swell. “You’re really interesting, Bloom. You know that, right?”

“I am?” Heh. Before all this, I would’ve thought I was the most basic teenager. 

“You are. I like talking to you.”

Face _heating_.

“Th-thank you,” I stammer. _Dammit, speech. You had to cut out **now**_?

Brandon smiles warmly. “You know… I’ve been thinking… Would you ever want to… Maybe… God—I sound like Timmy—”

He can’t finish that thought. Suddenly, something slightly pokey and papery hits my cheek and lands on the floor. I tear my attention away from Brandon and to whatever hit me. On the ground is an origami swan, lying on the ground. I look from where it came from. Helia sits far across us, looking at us neutrally, but with this hint of embarrassment lighting his cheeks. 

I grin, taking the paper swan on the ground and launching it back over. It’s magic, I soon learn, seeing the swan lift its wings and fly back over to its owner. Helia catches it, eyes lingering on me for some time, then going back to the swan placed in his lap.

“Helia, watch where you fly those things; this thing may fly on its own for the most part, but I can still ram this into some tree and kill us all if I get distracted.” Riven doesn’t move his attention away from the front of the ship, but he side-eyes Helia as he says it.

“I like those things,” I say, watching as the same swan flies around the ship. I’m tempted to touch it as it flies, but it might mess up the flow, and I tend to f*ck things up easily, so I keep my hand to my side. “They’re cool looking.”

“Do you _want_ to crash this thing?” Riven asks.

“No.”

“Then, you’re going to have to imagine it in your head. I’m not having those damn things block my vision.”

Helia swings his legs back and forth, touching the paper wings of the fake bird. I want to say something; he just seems shy, but he’s slightly intimidating. Look, usually I’m not scared of people younger than me, but he has this creepy vibe from him, and I try to distance myself. I’m in a magical world; everybody’s intentions are completely unclear. I don’t feel like being murdered by a magic wand or a broomstick while I’m here.

Wait, do witches use broomsticks? or wands?

I look back at Brandon, but he’s made conversation with Sky. Stella’s occupied on her phone. Riven’s driving. So now I feel all awkward. I hate feeling awkward.

The only person I can talk to is Helia, who’s talking to someone _else_. Great. But here’s the thing: he’s not talking to an actual person; he’s talking to his swans.

There are three of them, and not all of them are swans. One’s what seems like a panda ( _pandas_ exist here, too?), and the other is a fox. The last one is the swan I saw the first time. Nothing he’s saying is audible, but at least I can tell he’s not completely mute. It would be awkward talking to him, expecting him to say something when he can’t. I get embarrassed easily; have I mentioned that?

“Do they…talk to you?” I ask carefully. The magic that seemed to surround the animals disappears immediately once Helia realizes I’m talking to him. He looks at me surprised, scooching back a bit. I lean back as well, thinking that I’m scaring him.

He nods, and then he speaks. “There’s a spell on them. I can interact with them and vice versa.” Heh. His voice is deeper than I thought, but then again, he’s also fourteen; most kids would be going through the end of puberty, right? …or is it the beginning of puberty…?

“ _Oooh_.” I nod in understanding, and I try not to sound like an adult to a small child. “Well, that’s cool! Are you a Specialist? Err—Specialist in training?” Now I can kinda make conversation!

He nods. There’s a beat, but then he adds, “I start my first year in several months.”

“Oh.” It’s idle conversation, but conversation, nonetheless. He looks down back at his animals. I try to find something else to say. “Did you put the spell on the animals, or did somebody else do that? or is the paper enchanted? Is paper enchanted, here?”

Helia stares at me, looking annoyed. I shrink under his gaze.

“Don’t be rude, Helia,” Brandon scolds. “She’s trying to be nice to you.” “Don’t mind him, Bloom. He’s just asocial.”

“And slightly creepy,” adds Riven. Helia lightly glares at him.

“He’s not a terrible person, though,” says Sky. “He can be entertaining. Remember when we were sitting in Professor Wheatdoom’s class, and Helia’s little animals came flying in? And then he kept trying to retrieve them by standing on desks and jumping around? It was the most entertaining thing that’s ever happened in that class.”

“Professor Wheatdoom _hates_ his job,” Brandon explains to me. “And we can feel it, too.”

“ _Anything’s_ better than Wheatdoom’s class,” Riven says.

I nod in understanding. As much as I love the magical world and am interested in all things fantastical, Alfea is still a _school_ , which means it’s going to be boring at times. Believe me, I’ve nearly fallen asleep in DuFour’s class more than once. And then you get detention for falling asleep! I’m sorry, _Griselda_. It’s _hard_ to stay awake after you’ve been sparring for fifty minutes!

“That was an accident,” Helia explains. “Sometimes they don’t want to listen to me, so I have to be harsher on them.” He never says too much in one sitting, I find out. He eyes his motionless animals on his lap.

“Yeah. Imagine being so lonely you have to _create_ your friends,” Riven laughs at Helia’s expense. Helia grumbles, seemingly contemplating whether to retaliate or not. In the end, he doesn’t, and just keeps his head low.

“Ah, Riven, don’t be hypocritical,” Stella finally chimes in. She’s not looking up from her phone, though. “You were lonely, too, dear. You came wandering over to Sky, Brandon, and I from nowhere and made some friends.”

“And then you ditched us,” Sky deadpans.

Riven doesn’t respond, taking a turn and dipping the ship lower.

Brandon shrugs. I turn my head towards Helia, who has begun flying his animals again. Suddenly, there’s a loud _pop_! close to my side of the window, and I nearly jump so high, I go through the ship’s ceiling. “ _AAAH_! _The hell was that_?”

“Calm your titties, fairy. Those are just the mini fireworks,” Riven explains. Another spark pops in front of the ship. I stare confused.

“Heh. That’s kinda dumb. Those things look dangerous, and there’s a prince onboard, I can’t die here!” Sky cries, moving backwards.

Riven lowers the ship so that it’s barely touching the ground, and he slows to a stop in a parking lot. The ship looks _completely_ out of place compared to all the other cars, but…it’s going to have to do. I pull myself out of the chair, watching as the exit of the ship opens, allowing me to walk down the ramp and onto the ground. The others follow behind.

The ground is littered with variations of orange streamers and confetti, and they seem to be coming down like rain, landing in my hair and onto the ground. There’s loud music coming from around the corner of the area we’re in, and there’s a sign on the grass close by which writes: _Welcome to Magix City Square, founded two hundred years ago on this very day_!

“Lot of orange,” Stella states, stepping on the confetti. “This is kinda like a path to the actual area.” There are long buildings in front of us, seeming to be apartments. I think everybody here is gathered in the main square, but I feel bad for anybody who lives in there; loud music and obnoxious confetti does not seem like how I want to spend _my_ Saturday. Speaking of me, I take out my phone and snap a couple pictures of the area to send to my parents, but in one of my shots, Helia’s origami swan’s photobombed, but I’m going to send them anyway. The swan flies forward, spreading its wings and lifting off. Helia runs after it, ignoring the passing people.

“Hey! Helia, don’t run off like that!” Brandon calls, reaching outwards, but Helia’s already gone.

Stella huffs. “This is why you couldn’t pay me enough money to babysit.” She pulls out her purse and puts on some shades.

“If he gets hit by a car, it will not be my fault.” Riven shuts down the ship.

“It’ll be mine!” Sky cries, comically melting. Not literally. “If I lose Helia, Saladin will have my head!” He runs forward, going after Helia. We shrug, but we follow him.

We eventually find Helia still chasing after the swan, nearly knocking it more people. We’ve officially reached the square where the main festival is being held, with a _lot_ more confetti and streamers, and I can see the outline of a marching band. There are stands set up, looking like a marketplace. It’s a lot more crowded here than in the parking lot, with loud voices, small children, and general crowdedness. All the way in the front is a white, monumental building surrounded by balloons and streamers, and with a sign writing, _Magix City Hall_.

Helia lunges forward, catching the bird in his hands, but ramming right into the gate blocking off the parking lot and the festival area with a painful sound. I wince. That’s probably going to leave a bruise. Before any of us can go make sure he’s okay, an energic voice beats us to it. “ _Whoa, whoa, little man! I know you’re excited to enter the festival, but if you keep on, you might have to go to the hospital instead_!”

A man comes walking out of nowhere, dressed elaborately in purples and whites. He wears small, circular glasses placed on his nose, with brown hair that swoops outwards on either side. Dunno how he got his hair to do that. He kneels towards Helia, who’s slowly getting up, holding his now bruised face, keeping his swan clasped in his right hand. The man grabs onto Helia’s arm, helping him up. “There. Are you okay?”

Helia winces when he touches his nose but nods anyway.

“Good. It would be a shame to have to go to the hospital on such a _glorious day_! Lovely weather, yes?”

We stand there awkwardly, and I nod slowly in agreement.

The man places a hand on his hip. “Oh, don’t give me that look. I know I’m taking up your time. Is it a crime for someone to want to talk to the passing people? I feel slightly insulted.”

“Look, dude,” Riven says. “We don’t care about your sadness. Can we just go?” Brandon nudges him, giving him a disapproving look akin to one Flora usually gives one of us if we’re acting up.

“Alright, alright. You Magix schoolers are so rude.”

“How did you know we were Magix students?” I ask.

“It’s just a gift of mine! Really.” He leans forward. “With just one look, I can tell exactly where you came from. If you just tell me your name, I can learn about your intentions. Interesting gift, right?”

“That would be pretty helpful in the investigation biz. A little _too_ helpful, possibly,” Brandon points out.

“Well, I need to know your full _name_ to know your intentions, and some criminals are smarter than others.” The man whistles. He pulls a couple cards out of thin air. “Nato Fogsky, at your service.”

I look down at the card he handed us. It looks like one of those business cards businesspeople give you. By the side of his picture (which is quite bright, might I add), it explains his name and background. _Nato A. Fogsky, Magix Private Investigator. Birthplace: Resshire, Trarus, Domino_. A sense of familiarity washes over me once I see the name _Domino_. I’ve never heard of it until now, but… Something feels oddly familiar….

“A private investigator.” Stella looks Fogsky up and down. “Interesting job.”

“Yes, well. Magix can’t protect itself. _Aaand_ because I have nothing else to do. No strange murderers or occurrences, so what is a bored detective supposed to do other than keep an eye on things on a special occasion such as this?” He smiles. “I’ll tell you what; since you so graciously listened to me longer than you needed to, I can help you around the place. There’s a lot that goes on around here, and what better than a detective who can keep you out of trouble to help you around?”

“Yeah, no, dude,” Riven says. “I don’t need to be babysat while babysitting.”

“It’s not babysitting,” Helia deadpans.

“Whatever. I’m good on my own. Besides, I don’t want to be late to the hoverbike race. I’m competing, and I don’t plan on losing.”

“Brandon and I need to practice for it anyway,” Sky explains.

“Yeah. If I want to beat Riven, I can’t just rely on luck.” Brandon winks at me as he says it.

“There’s a huge sale at the mall today for the special occasion!” Stella cries, looking away from her phone. “I’ll meet you guys at the parade.” She moves past us, running off in the direction of the mall area. Riven and Sky head out as well, but Brandon lingers a bit. “Are you coming?”

“Um, I’ll probably take Mr. Fogsky on his offer. Don’t wanna get lost in a city like this. And I’ve had some bad experiences being alone here.” I can feel myself getting cold. Dammit, Icy.

Brandon nods in understanding. Sky looks over his shoulder. “Keep an eye on Helia for us, alright? Thanks!”

I sorta forgot he was there for a hot second. I look down, and he’s standing there perfectly neutral, blinking slowly. Now I understand why they call him slightly creepy; his deadpan and expression look remind me a lot of Techna’s, but at least there’s _some_ form of expression on her face.

“It’s a good idea to be guided in a city like this,” Fogsky explains, walking past the open railing. “Especially for someone like you, dear. You’re not even from this _dimension_.”

I open my mouth to try to ask how _the ever-living hell did he know **that,**_ but I guess I underestimated his power. “Y-yeah. Everything’s a little weird, and I do _not_ have a good sense of direction.”

He chuckles lightly. “Come, come. We can walk around for a bit before the parade starts.”

“There’s a parade?” I ask, following him. Helia walks behind us, looking around. The music is getting louder.

“Of course, there would be this isn’t the most famous and showy city in the universe for _nothing_! I kinda wanted us to release butterflies while the parade happened, but my idea got shut down since _apparently_ one of the workers has a butterfly phobia. Weirdo. So, we had to stick with roses instead.”

I look behind us. “Wait, aren’t you in charge of who goes in and who goes out?”

“Oh. Right.” He flicks his wrist, a glow appearing towards the rails. He wipes his hands and continues walking.

“What did you just do?”

“My magic will do my job for me. I want to enjoy the festival, too, you know.” He pouts childishly.

We walk through the city, and the confetti here is double the amount of what we saw at the parking lot. It litters the ground so much; I can barely see the road. And the music gets louder and louder as we pass. Helia hums the song behind us, mumbling the lyrics. I might have to ask Musa to give me some intel on Magic Dimension music….

“ _Soooo_ , tell me about yourself. I already know where you’re from, so you don’t have to tell me that.” He chortles. “Give me some other info.”

I scratch my head. I decide not to give him _too_ much information. He’s a stranger, and I’ve been taught better. “I’m Bloom Peters. I’m an Alfea student—a first year. A couple months ago, I thought I was a regular Earth girl with regular Earth parents, but then I did some magic, and now I’m here.”

Fogsky pulls out a notebook from nowhere, fixing his glasses, and pulling out a pencil from his sleeve. “ _Bloom Peters… Earth girl… Alfea student… A late bloomer… Earth parents…_ ” He closes the notebook, and I watch it disappear into the air. “Interesting… You know, I’ve never heard of _that before_ , and I’ve heard of some crazy sh*t.” He places a hand over his mouth. “Oops. My bad. _Crap_. Crazy _crap_. I have to write every out-of-the-ordinary occurrence in my handy-dandy notebook.”

I stare at him.

“Oh, don’t give me that look. I’m not creepy. It’s my _job_ to investigate these things! But you’ll love it here. There’s so much to explore, to see; it’s even better when you’ve barely even heard of these things, hm?”

I nod in agreement. “Everybody’s kinda been saying that. People are trying to _teach me the magical way of the dragon_ … And really, I’m not bored by it at all! It’s so much more fun than just going to high school and hanging out on regular, old Earth.”

As we walk, I see there are multiple stands and areas where people are selling things from fruit to jewelry. Helia wanders over towards the area selling art supplies, like paintbrushes and canvases. “Does the little man like art?” Fogsky asks, causing me to jerk my head towards him.

“Seems like it.” I watch as he picks out a couple paintbrushes with a color pallet, handing the stand owner a few dollar bills. That reminds me… “Hey, Mr. Fogsky… What’s the currency around here?”

“It depends. In Magix, it’s all in some paper bills called _Dinaria_. It’s a common currency in a lot of the mainstream realms, along with the realm money. But in more _secluded_ realms, the money can’t be used at all.” He laughs. “And the money in those areas is hard to obtain if you don’t have a job.”

As he speaks, I keep an eye on the things people are selling. Fabrics, sweets (my mouth waters once I see the funnel cake. _They sell this here_?), and graphic tees. I think of Musa when I see this one shirt with a skull and bones wearing headphones. But I have no money, so that makes things a bit difficult….

“Maybe I could get a job…” I speak to no one in particular, but I know Fogsky’s listening to me. I’m standing next to a jewelry stand, examining a large pendant decorated in yellows and blues and reds. There are strange symbols in the center, and they give me this strange sense of déjà vu. “Is there a way I can get a job? Is there a Magix equivalent to McDonald’s?”

Fogsky blinks. “What’s McDonald’s?”

I wave a dismissive hand. “Sorry. American thing.” He pulls out his notebook once more, scribbling something down, then letting it disappear. “Is there a place where I can work to get some money that _doesn’t_ require any experience? or hires basically anyone? because I’m just an Alfea student with no magic experience.”

Fogsky thinks for a moment. “Maybe you could work for me… You’re an interesting person, Miss Peters. My old housekeeper quit after I refused to keep my cat out of her way (come on, it’s Ms. Whiskers’ house, too!), so I’ve been looking for a new one. One that likes _cats_ , thank you.”

“I like cats!” I say. I may be more of a dog person, but I’ll adopt a cat if I want to. But my parents say no. “And I had to clean the entire Alfea castle once. I think I’m qualified.”

Fogsky smiles, ruffling my hair. “I like you even more, now. You can start working in about a week. You’ll be paid seven bucks every hour.”

I internally pat myself on the back. My first job! Before this, I probably would’ve thought I could get a job at our local Burger King or something. I may not enjoy cleaning, but I care more about money.

Suddenly, Helia’s out of my sight. I nearly start panicking until I see the small outline of a familiar fourteen-year-old boy standing close to a large building. I walk over towards him, with Fogsky following. He’s looking inside to where a projector screen is placed on the side, with a bunch of people gathered around it. It’s playing this film, obviously about the creation of Magix. We came at the right time; the film had only just begun.

_Not too long ago, in areas well-known to us now, four kingdoms had an idea. Two hundred years ago, the four biggest kingdoms known to man—Erakylon, Solaria, Linphea, and Domino—decided to create a city that would combine all three of their cultures to welcome an area full of diverse and new people to bring all magic and races together. King Kibu III of Eraklyon wanted a bright and vibrant city to bring people in. Queen Luan VI of Solaria wanted a technologically advanced city; one to vaguely resemble the Titannian capitol of Zenith. King Lake II wanted to keep the city environmentally friendly. Queen Miriam I wanted to enact strict laws to keep the city as safe as possible._

_Travelling to the supposedly uninhabited lands of **Púeros Terra**_ — “Legend has it that the Great Dragon rested here after their work was finished on the world, while the Phoenix went over to the Underground to rest there,” Fogsky whispers— _Queen Miriam used the strength she had to capture the essence of the remaining Dragon Fire, clearing out the area to begin the construction of the now-famous city_.

There’s more, but my bad attention span moves to the people in the crowd. I feel someone brush past me, but I don’t turn my head to look. A person has caught my eye, and it’s a girl probably about my age, dressed in a lot of dark colors, with red hair that looked so fluffy, I kinda want to touch it. It’s kinda like mine, but my hair kinda has a ginger feel to it. Hers is a light mixture of both red and pink. She’s watching the video. Fogsky looks around behind me, moving to the left, but not without patting me on the shoulder, seemingly telling me that he’s coming back. The girl turns her head to look at me, staring at me strangely for what feels like an hour, but what’s really twenty _long_ seconds. She walks over to me, and I feel my eyes widening. _Is she about to tell me off for staring_?

“Excuse me,” she says softly, looking downwards. “H-have you seen a group of witches around here? Or one girl with green hair, long. Kinda lanky. Skinny?”

I slowly shake my head. “N-no. Sorry. B-but I thought you were about to say one of them had nearly white hair, and I was about to panic. I thought you were going to explain this one Cloud Tower witch, and I don’t have incredibly good memories of her.”

The girl laughs a bit. “No, I wouldn’t be looking for Icy…” She trails off, looking at me suspiciously. “You know Icy? Are you a Cloud Tower witch? because I know a lot of them, but I don’t remember you…”

“Oh, no. I’m an Alfea student. Bloom Peters, thanks.” I laugh sheepishly, holding out my hand for the girl to take. “I’ve just had one too many run-ins with her and her…sisters? Are the three of them related?”

“They’re part of a secret coven, rumor has it,” the girl explains. “But no, they’re not related. I didn’t realize you were an Alfea student. Usually, Alfea girls would sense I’m a witch and walk off. Fairies don’t like witches, you know.”

“I don’t see why they have to,” I say. “It sounds kinda dumb. I may not have had the _best_ experiences with witches, but I wouldn’t hold it against all of them.”

She smiles brightly at me, a light blush covering her cheeks. “Oh! I’m Mirta. Mirta Oravill. First-year Cloud Tower witch.”

“Nice to meet you, Mirta.” I smile at her, absentmindedly looking around. Fogsky hasn’t come back yet, but I can see the familiar brightness of Stella around the corner. “Oh, Stella!” I try to wave to get her attention, and I walk off to get to her, but I stop short when I notice her.

Sky stands close by, a hand on her shoulder. Stella’s face is in her hands, shaking. She’s crying. I feel my heart ache. I have the sneaking suspicion it has something to do with the phone call from this morning. Sky wraps her in a hug, and I want to go comfort her, too, but somebody quickly yanks me out of the road.

Brandon stands there, looking concerned. “Bloom! The parade’s about to begin. We don’t want you to get run over by a float, do we?”

I laugh nervously. “Oh. Oops.” I keep looking back over towards Stella, but more people begin to gather around, and I lose sight of her. “Is everything alright with Stella?”

Brandon thinks for a moment. “I don’t think so… Why? Is something wrong?”

“She looked _really_ upset when I saw her. And Stella doesn’t let too many things get to her… This must be pretty personal.”

I nod. I open my mouth, about to ask things about her parents, but I kinda decide against asking. First: it’s an invasion of privacy. Second: I notice Helia’s gone.

“Uh…” I look around, trying to see if I can catch sight of the familiar gray-haired boy. “Have any of you seen Helia?”

Brandon begins looking around as well. “Did you lose him?”

“I mean, I _had_ him a couple minutes ago!”

Helia is nowhere in sight, and I am starting to panic. This is a huge city with a huge festival, and I don’t think kidnapping is low here.

“ _Oooh_! Do you mean the little guy? with the hair?” Mirta points to her own hair in reference.

“Yes, him. Did you see him pass you or something?” I ask, feeling slightly relieved.

“I can find him for you. And maybe I can find Lucy as well.” She says that last part more to herself than anybody else. And she leaves right as the band begins its music.

Suddenly, large floats come… _floating_ down the street, all decorated in their own way. One is decorated in a lot of flowers with large, babyish dragons as their mascot; another has the same look with flowers and whatnot, but this time with a swing and a big-*ss phoenix on it; the one that comes after it has a giraffe-necked goose surrounded by nearly blinding pink colors; and the one that comes last is one that has artificial fire on the sides, with what is supposed to be a replica of the great dragon smack in the middle. It roars and breathes fake fire, and I’m _seriously_ impressed with whoever made these floats.

I feel someone tap me on the shoulder, and it’s Fogsky, looking fondly at the floats. “I knew I made the right decision choosing those third year Alfeans to design these; they did a damn good job.”

“Where have you been?” I ask. I wonder if Mirta’s found Helia yet….

“Oh, I just saw some suspicious activity. It’s been somewhat resolved, but I’m not taking my eyes off them yet…” Fogsky seems to be muttering to himself, swinging back and forth on his heels, looking around the place.

“Who were they? Some witches threatening to fill the confetti cannons with mud?”

“No. Secretive witches hiding in alleyways. I know witches like the dark and all, but it’s still suspicious nonetheless.”

I nod in understanding, but I have the sneaking suspicion that those witches are our good ole Trix up to their old…

Tricks. Heh.

The next floats that come by are specially decorated, according to Fogsky. The first that comes in is one decorated in artificial (and I think _real_ ) swords lining the sides, with knights huzzahing towards the sky in a very _knightly fashion_. But then I notice the knights are crying, “ _For Erakylon_!”, and that gives me the sneaking suspicion that this is supposed to represent Erakylon.

“Erakylon’s always been about chivalry and knighthood,” Brandon explains, and I nearly jump hearing his voice. He laughs seeing my bewilderness. “Sorry for that. Just wanted to say that if you didn’t know.”

I nod in understanding.

Next, coming down royally, is the _OMG I’M GOING BLIND_ float of Solaria. Brandon quickly hands me sunglasses once it rolls by, and for good reason. It’s staring at the sun, but you can look at it clearly with sunglasses. A large sun and moon are the focal points of the float, moving outwards to reveal handmade, twinkling stars.

After letting my eyes fix themselves after the blinding show that was the Solaria float, I’m greeted with the warm sight of an entirely nature inspired float, with a woman dressed like one of those nature goddesses you’d find if you look up _nature goddess_ on the internet. She waves royally, like a Disney Princess at Disney World/Land. It’s Linphea if you didn’t know.

And finally, we have a float covered in ice on one side but decorated with foresty goodness on the other. I’m confused what this one is, and I think Fogsky noticed that.

“That’s Domino,” he explains. “Interesting choice to make it both cold _and_ woodsy. Most likely to represent what Domino _used_ to be and what it is now.”

“What’s it now?” I ask.

“A frozen tundra. A kingdom that’s one step away from being comparable to the Omega Dimension,” Fogsky answers darkly, and I feel a strange sense of dread and fear seep into my stomach. He shrugs. “Shame. Such a pretty place.”

I open my mouth to speak once more, but the words are lost in my throat once I see the woman in the front. She’s dressed in a golden gown, dark skin, with flowing black hair. But what really catches my eye is the mask that covers her face. She smiles and waves to everybody, but I feel myself leaving, but not physically. It’s as if my soul is being ripped to a world that is not my own. A world of events that have already happened.

The Domino float passes on. That part of my present soul sees this. And something that looks like a presidential float comes down, with a woman rising in the sky from a small box smack in the middle. Fogsky explains who this is, but I don’t hear him, the last of my present soul being ripped to this new world.

_Thoren feels uncomfortable in this area full of royals and nobles alike. He feels out of place in front of all these people. Everyone is dressed elaborately in masks and gowns and suits, while he’s still dressed in his knight garb, a blue, cheaply made mask covering his face. He stands by the snack table, continuously refilling his cup full of light alcohol. It wasn’t enough to make him drunk, but enough to ease his brain from the anxiety seeping into his brain._

_He hates being here. He doesn’t **want** to be here. Ever since the ball began, he had been looking for a way out, an inconspicuous way out where nobody would be able to see him._

_He had been invited to the ball by King Oritel to celebrate a victory against their common foes, and since Thoren had been at the front of the battle, Oritel thought it appropriate for him to be the most congratulated. And what better way to celebrate than a masquerade ball full of nobles and royals and one awkward, out-of-place knight named Thoren._

_Downing another glass, he turns his attention once more towards the main floor, watching as the orchestra played the most appropriate of songs for a ball: some upbeat, some slow and simple, others with a high violin solo that kinda got Thoren’s toes tapping. But there is one girl that has caught his eye._

_She is dressed in a sparkling, golden dressed that touched the floor, but had an opening in the front so she could have good leg room. Her hair—akin to magnificent golden silk—moves gracefully as she dances—by herself, that is. It is an interesting sight for everyone to see. One girl, with a bedazzled and jeweled mask, dances enchantingly by herself, and Thoren has half the mind to go talk to her._

_But he decides against it. He would just stay where he was and just wait until this ball was over._

_“Well, don’t hog all the drinks. Some of us need some, too.”_

_Thoren nearly jumps a foot in the air. Turning his head, the same girl he had his eye on close to the entire time he had been there stands next to him, looking from the drinks to him. Through the mask, he can faintly make out light blue eyes._

_“S-sorry. Just thought I was safe over here.”_

_“Well, everybody thinks you’re a little creepy, Mr. Knight.” The girl pours herself a drink. “Everybody else is mingling or dancing, while you’re standing here like a creep, stealing all the drinks! Dancing is tiring, you know.”_

_Thoren nods in understanding, averting his gaze from her, but he can feel her staring at him. “Well? Does Mr. Knight talk at all, or does he just stand near drink tables ominously?”_

_Thoren swallows. “N-no, I talk.”_

_“Cool.” The girl downs another drink, still looking at Thoren from the corner of her eye. “So… Care to explain **why exactly** you’re standing over here like a creep?”_

_“Technically, I’m not supposed to be here.”_

_The girl raises an eyebrow. “Oh, really? So, you’re like a criminal?”_

_“Goodness, no. I’m a **knight**. It’s just.” Thoren sighs. He points over to where King Oritel sat in his chair, conversing with a few of the other members of the royal court, his wife, Miriam II, sitting next to him. “His Highness wanted me to come, and if I didn’t, it’d be a sign of major disrespect.”_

_The girl nods in understanding. “Father—The king—” She corrects herself, and Thoren raises an eyebrow “—is like that. Kinda reminds me of the king of Erakylon, except less beefy and shyer. That king will execute you at the drop of a hat.” The girl’s eyes widen, suddenly getting an idea. She takes out a small card, looking like one of those playing cards. She feels on all sides, muttering about the sharpness of it. Thoren opens his mouth to ask what her intention is, but before he can ask, she chucks the card across the ballroom, hitting a hat one of the dancers were wearing. The man of which the hat belongs to looks around confusedly, wondering if the hat had just fallen on its own accord, or is it one of the troublesome children that are also present at this celebration, causing their general mayhem. Goodness, the man doesn’t even know **how** they’re considered part of the Royal Court of Domino._

_“See?” the girl asks. “The hat fell. Somebody in Eraklyon is dead.”_

_Thoren snorts, covering his face with his hand, feeling embarrassed at the unattractive noise that escaped his [nose?]. Once he recovers, he feels slightly more confident. “Your dancing’s rather good. Are you one of those professional dancers for the king and queen?”_

_The girl shrugs. “Not a job. Just something I like doing. Everybody else is occupied, so I kinda have to dance by myself like a weirdo.”_

_“Hey, if you want something done, you have to do it yourself, am I right?”_

_This time, the girl’s the one laughing. Her smile remains even after she’s stopping giggling. She holds out a hand towards Thoren. “This is a masquerade ball, you know. We can’t use our real names. **But** I’ll let you call me Nymph.”_

_“Nymph? Interesting name.”_

_“Just something you can **call** me.”_

_“Alright,” says Thoren. “You can call me…” He thinks for a nickname. “You can me… Thor.”_

_“Thor? Alright. Thor and Nymph. I like the sound of it.”_

I’m violently ripped from the [flashback?]. Someone’s shaking my arm, and I can hear somebody mumbling close by. It takes about twenty seconds for me to wake up, and I can fully hear what’s going on.

The lady who had shown up before I went into La La Land is still talking (wonder how long it’s been), Brandon looks at me concernedly, and Fogsky is frantically writing in his notebook.

“Bloom? Bloom, are you alright?’

“Urgh…” I’m feeling quite lightheaded. I feel myself toppling over, but before I hit the ground, Brandon catches me. I would be flattered…if I didn’t feel like throwing up. Damn, being transported into another world doesn’t feel as good as it looks on TV.

Fogsky mutters close to my ear. “ _Seems…to…experience…possibly…nausea…or…light-headedness…after…possible…vision…_ ”

“Are you okay?” asks Brandon.

I rub my temples, feeling a headache coming on. “Yeah, I’m okay. That was weird…”

“What happened to you? You completely blanked out. You kinda looked dead.”

“I did?” I raise an eyebrow.

“You froze up like a Solarian in Zenith, Miss Peters,” Fogsky hums.

I don’t understand that analogy.

“It was like…” I snap my fingers. “I saw her again! Daphne! …I think. She was wearing a mask, but she wore that same dress when I first saw her. And!” I yell that part out, causing a few people to give us looks. “One of the people on the floats was wearing the dress that she was wearing, including the mask. She was talking to this man, and he seems familiar somehow, but I’ve never seen him in my life, and they were at this masquerade ball, and apparently, Daphne’s a really good dancer—”

“ _Has…had…visions…akin…to…the…one…she…suffered…on…the…day…of…November…30 th…”_

“Uh… What is he doing?” Brandon asks, seeing the strange behavior of Fogsky.

“Oh, he’s just writing down in his journal. I think he does it when he sees something interesting.”

“Tell me, my dear, how frequent has your visions been?” Fogsky leans forward, holding out his journal.

“Uh…” I wrack my brain. “This is the first time I’ve had an actual vision. Other times, I’ve just been seeing this woman. Daphne.”

He continues writing down in his notebook, and while he does that, I’m aware of the person who’s speaking.

“And these features all make up this wonderful city of Magix; a bright, wonderful, amazing city, and the home of many. Now, let us continue our celebration of two hundred years of Magix.” The podium lowers back into the box, and people erupt in cheer.

“Who’s that?” I ask Fogsky, who’s put away his notebook to notice.

“That is the one and only Thoseth Evenshade, mayor of Magix City and technically my boss. She talks a lot, and she can be such a b*tch. But she means well. But she’s slightly two-faced, so beware.” Fogsky chortles. “You’ll see more of her if you keep up to date with news or whatever.”

“She’s been talking for nearly fifteen minutes,” Brandon whines. “I could’ve gotten myself some lunch and finished it by the time she was finished.” As the crowd disperses, Brandon turns back towards me. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“I’m fine. Just kinda queasy.”

He nods. “I’ll see if I can get you a drink…” But before he can go off somewhere, a loud voice yells, “ _Brandon_!”

Sky comes into view, Stella following close by, eating a hot dog. Riven shows up, too, his arms raised behind his back in a bored fashion. “Are you coming? The race starts in ten minutes.”

“Ah, right.” Brandon snaps his fingers. “Are you coming?” he asks me.

“Yeah. I don’t think there’s anything left for me here.” And Helia has shown up yet, so let’s hope none of them comment on it.

“Aye, where’s the kid?” Riven asks. Dammit.

“Uh…” I look down at the ground. “He…kinda got away from me.”

“ _What_?” Riven asks incredulously. “You _lost him_?”

“I didn’t _lose_ him!” I shoot back. “I just lost _sight_ of him. He’s probably in a museum or buying stuff.”

“Well, Helia always did get distracted easily,” Stella adds, wiping the mustard off her lip. She seems to be really enjoying the hot dog. “He’ll probably be fine.”

“Key word: _probably_!” Sky nearly wails. “If we don’t find Helia before we go back tonight, my royal head is going to be on a platter!”

“Everything’ll be fine,” I assure them. “He might pop up again while we’re watching the races.”

Riven groans, walking away from us. I’m left standing next to Stella, who’s finishing the last of her hot dog. I feel a bit sheepish, but I ask anyway. “Hey, uh… Are you okay?”

Stella turns her head to look at me, wiping mustard from the side of her lip. “Huh? Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

I sigh. “I saw you. With Sky. I kinda want confirmation.”

Stella doesn’t respond.

Before I can say anything else, a loud popping noise is heard, and roses begin falling all around is, catching a lot of people’s interest as they _ooh_ and _ah_ at the sight.

“Huh. It’s kinda late, but at least they actually let out the roses,” says Fogsky, taking a flower as it falls.

Sky moves towards Stella, getting down onto his knee, then winces because he just landed on a thorny rose, fixes his position, and hands Stella the rose. “A rose for my rose.”

“Well, how romantic,” Stella gushes. Riven gags up ahead.

“Well, here, Bloom.” Brandon holds out the rose that he caught. “A rose for you. I think it would look nice with your hair.”

I smile, taking it from him. “Red to go on red. You know, you never could catch me wearing a leather jacket or red from head to toe. I’d look like a tomato.” I place the flower in my head. “I always thought it’d look weird. Do I really look good with it?”

Brandon nods. “You look adorable.”

“Ah, young love,” Fogsky comments. “You know, I met my husband five years ago on this very spot. He was a photography student; I was an intern at the place I work now. One of those cute college stories you’d see. But now he’s all the way in Smiuyae, and Magix and Smiuyae have two different time zones, so I can’t text him all the time or else he’ll be mad that I’m talking to him too late at night, and I know how he is about getting up before he’s supposed to, and he’s just a lot of work!”

“Could we _not_ talk about your ridiculous love lives right now?” Riven hisses. “ _I_ have a race to get to.” He’s holding a large biker helmet, cleaning it with a white cloth, looking all dark and brooding. _Still_ dunno what Musa sees in him.

“Alright, fine, fine.” Fogsky taps Brandon on the shoulder. “Your friend is unpleasant.”

“On some days,” Sky chimes in, “unpleasant can be considered an understatement.”

We walk over to a large area with a barrier blocking off our side from the other, but an entrance is located a little bit over with a security guard in charge. A good bit of people is gathered there, some watching the people riding on their hoverbikes for practice, while others are mingling with each other. As we’re walking, one of the drivers is flung off their bike, causing the bike to go flying. I duck for protection, but I don’t feel anything hit or go past me. The bike lies a couple feet away from the driver, who seems unscathed.

“The hoverbike races have to be the safest things ever without making it child’s play,” explains Sky. “You have the barrier to stop you or your bike from flying at somebody, suits that protect you from physical if you fall off… I dunno _how_ you could get hurt doing this.”

“Somebody always manages to, though,” I say.

“We’ve made a bet about who’s going to win this,” Riven explains. “If I win, the other losers have to treat me like a king for a month. That rule goes for all of us, and _I_ have never had the luxury of being treated like a king. After this race, I’ll finally get a taste.”

“Don’t be so confident, Riven,” Brandon says. “I got my first hoverbike when I was seven. I have more experience than you do.”

“Yeah, yeah. But I’m tougher than you and Sky are combined. You two are little royals with your servants and your politeness and your chivalry. Y’all don’t know how to actually fight to win.”

“You know, Flora was right, Riv,” Stella says. “You do have more brawns than brains.”

“I’m still confused if that’s a good thing or a bad thing,” he deadpans.

“See? What did I say?” she asks me.

“Whatever. I’ll finally be able to show up you losers. I know how much ladies love winners, right girlies?”

I feel annoyance creep into my brain. “Even if you do win, I won’t be that impressed. I’m personally rooting for Brandon.”

“Of course, you would. You and Brandon are a perfect match. Two dorks, one tree. You’re almost as bad as Timmy and his robot girlfriend.”

“Don’t you talk about Techna that way!” I snap.

“I can talk about anyone in anyway I want. And what are you, a little fairy, going to do about it, hm?”

I’m fuming now.

“Aw, is little fairy mad? What are you gonna do? throw sparkles at me?”

I want to hit him in the face or something, but I don’t want to make a scene, so instead, I try to find an _alternate_ way of hurting him. And I see just what I can use.

“Riven, that’s _enough_. You need to learn to shut the hell up sometimes,” Brandon hisses.

“Of _course,_ Brandon would be the one to come to Little Fairy’s rescue. Hey, Bloom, do you want to know what what Brandon _honestly thinks_ about you?”

I’m not listening much anymore. There’s a woman walking around with a bucket of water, and I quickly recall the lifting spell we learned in Pre-Magic class. I reach out my hand, watching as the water from the bucket slowly rising above, not spilling anywhere, and I slowly bring it towards me. “You know, Riven?” I ask. “You’ve been so angry and defensive lately. Maybe you need to _cool off_.” Right as it floats over his head, I let it go, and it splashes all over him, soaking the front of his shirt and landing on his helmet which was still in his hands. It sparks, and he throws it on the ground. It jerks around a bit, and I fear it might catch fire. But instead, it just lies there, sparking just a bit, and it looks beyond broken.

Riven doesn’t even care about the fact that he’s soaking wet. “ _What the hell did you do_?” he nearly screams, rushing over to pick up his helmet, but he can’t, and it shocks him when he tries.

“Don’t want to do that, dear,” Fogsky hums. He’s eating popcorn from a bag. “It might electrocute you.”

Riven roars, running over to me and grabbing me by the front of my shirt. “ _Do you know what you’ve done_?”

Sky pulls him off me, and I fix my shirt. The look on his face… I thought he was going to kill me.

“ _You broke my helmet, you b*tch! I’m disqualified from the race now! I hope you’re **f*cking** happy!_”

“I didn’t mean to do that!” I feel myself shrinking. “Do you have a spare?”

“Do you think money grows on _trees_? This was _extremely_ expensive!” He looks like he’s legit going to cry. I feel awful. “Thanks a lot, Bloom. Thanks, a whole _bunch_.” He walks off, roughly jerking Brandon off when he tries to console him.

“Damn.” Fogsky pops another piece of popcorn in his mouth. “Dramatic much?”

“I didn’t mean to take him out of the race!” I cry. “I just wanted to teach him a lesson.”

“Well, you did.” Stella sighs. “He’ll get over it, though.”

I feel _terrible_. Damn my anger and revenge-hungry brain! There’s got to be a way to make it up to him….

A bell ring overhead. “We have to go now,” Brandon says. It takes out his own helmet, along with Sky who does the same. “Wish us luck, girls.”

Stella and I wave, mine a bit more halfhearted.

A whole bunch of races come leading their hoverbikes onto the track, some looking to make sure everything was functioning, others already getting together. I feel a tap on my shoulder, and I turn around. Mirta has returned, smiling at me. “I was able to find the little one.”

“You did?” I ask. At least one thing’s better. “Oh, thank God! Where is he?”

“He got distracted at a museum,” she explains. “He says he’ll come back once the races have begun.”

I nod in understanding. Then, I turn back to her. “Were you able to find whoever _you_ were looking for?”

She nods. “Lucy…found more people to hang out with, I guess.” She turns away from me, looking at the gathering racers. I want to ask, but a disembodied voice calls, “ _Racers! please head over to the starting line._ ”

The racers begin heading over to the checkered banner, reminding me of a Mario Kart game. Each of them has helmets on, making it hard for me to tell who anyone is, but one of the racers waves over towards Stella, who waves up, so I assume it’s Sky. “ _The race will begin in ten minutes!”_ cries the disembodied voice.

“Ooh, I’m excited!” cries Fogsky next to me. “I’m _so_ glad I brought food for this.”

I don’t feel so excited. My guilt is eating up at me. I turn my attention away from the race and see a strange person walking over, holding a helmet like the ones the racers were wearing. She’s dressed in this white lab coat, with long, silky brown hair, and small glasses like ones that rest on Fogsky’s nose. I’m quite curious, but then she and I look glances, and she runs over quickly. “Excuse me?” she asks. “Does anyone in your party need a spare helmet?”

  
“Nope. Everything’s fine here,” Stella answers, but I see this as my opportunity. “Actually, yes,” I say.

The woman’s face seems to light up, and now I can tell there’s something familiar about her, but I just can’t seem to put my finger on it. “Thank you. I’ve been wanting to sell this to someone, but I couldn’t find anyone who would take it. For being so kind, the helmet’s free.”

I take it from her hands, examining it. The shield on it looks like a tinted window on a car, and it looks almost new. “It looks fresh.”

“It’s the latest model. It has a communication device and everything. You’re going to love it.”

“Damn, really?” I ask. “Surprised nobody took it then.”

“Well, a lot of people already had spare helmets, and nobody believed me when I told them it was the newest model since it’s so rare for a person to have one.”

I smile at her. “Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome,” she replies. I feel a weight lifted off my shoulder. Damn, that was some short-lived guilt. I may still be slightly mad at Riven, but it wasn’t my intention to take him out of the race. He won’t forgive me completely, but at least he’ll have a chance again. I look up to find the woman has disappeared. People are weird in this place.

I walk around the crowd, trying to see if I can catch sight of our brooding Specialist. Luckily, I don’t have to look too far. He’s standing by a concession stand, sulking while downing an entire soda cup. It’s kind of amusing. I walk over, holding the helmet to my chest. “Riven?”

He glares at me, turning away. “What the hell do you want?”

I sigh. “I just wanted to apologize for what I did back there. You were being a d*ck, too, but I hadn’t wanted to ruin your chances of competing in the race. So… I got this.” I hold out the helmet, and his eyes widen. “Whoa… Where did you get this?”

“A lady gave it to me. For free,” I add. “Apparently, it’s the latest model.”

“This is a B-17 helmet!” he cries. “This is _amazing_. Everybody’s been trying to get their hands on this.” He places it over his head, smiling ear-to-ear. “Yeah, _baby_. This will help me win for _sure_. Sky and Brandon will never know what hit ‘em.”

“Oh, well—” I try to talk more, but he pushes past me, grabbing a hoverbike as he passes, running to join the racers gathered at the starting line. “You’re welcome,” I say to no one in particular.

I head back over to where Fogsky, Mirta, and Stella are gathered, waiting for the race to begin. Mirta wonders where I went, but I explain what I had given Riven. Heh. That rhymed.

The race begins four minutes after I give Riven the helmet. I’m excited for this; more than ever since my guilt has subsided. A traffic light appears, shining like _Mario Kart_ ~ before buzzing green, and the bikes take off, zooming past everything and everyone.

You know, this would be a lot more entertaining if I could see who who is. The only person I can tell is Riven, who is wearing the cool helmet. He races to first place, surpassing everyone before the second round. A commentator talks loudly above, and Fogsky explains that this is another co-worker of his, almost as annoying as he is. “Just less handsome,” he adds, running a hand through his hair.

The track is full of twists and turns and zigzagging roads, and it looks like it could make anyone sick. Apparently, the racers think the same, since some just get off their hoverbikes and throw up. It’s disgusting. And others just fly off their bikes, hitting others and barriers. It seems they’re fine, but I kind of doubt what Brandon said about how safe this race was….

It looks as if Riven might win this thing, since he hasn’t been anywhere else besides first place. But I apparently, I spoke too soon. During the final round, something happens to Riven, and he begins to swerve out of control, shocking everyone, including the commentator.

“ _Oh, what’s this_?” he asks. “ _Looks like there’s some issues at first place_!” A floating TV comes down, showing up close shots of what’s happening. We can’t see his face, but Riven is reeling in pain, his hoverbike moving everywhere, nearly hitting people close behind him. I don’t know what’s happening. I look around to try and see if I can get a closer look than the screen in front, but that’s when time goes slower as I lock eyes with someone all too familiar.

The same icy cold stare catches mine. Her hair is different from her usual ponytail (this time flirtatious in the back with a white headband), but I can tell it’s Icy by the way she looks at me. She was laughing when I saw her, and when we’re both aware of each other, she gives me this evil, yet innocent look, and everything clicks into place.

I just set up Riven for disaster.

I don’t think about what I do next. I don’t think when these things happen. I just do. I transform quickly, taking flight to enter the barrier from the top, flying past hoverbikes, seeming to confuse some of the drivers. The hoverbikes drive just as fast as I fly, which makes it harder to catch up to Riven, and a person is quickly catching up. I move quicker towards Riven, trying to find a way to get the helmet off his face, and I can tell he’s seen me by the way he weakly turns his head. The commentator talks about my sudden appearance, and there’s a camera watching my moves now, but I don’t pay much attention to it. I think quickly, trying to conjure up the levitation spell, but the person who’s driving closer to Riven, nearly crashes into me, causing me to jerk to a halt in my flight and mess up my spell, releasing an accidental spell at Riven, which throws him off his bike, launching it high into the air, coming straight towards us. I hold my breath, hoping it wouldn’t hit anybody, but suddenly, two long ropes wrap around the rogue bike, stopping its movement. I look to see where it came from.

Helia stands high up on a building (how the _hell_ did he get up there?) holding the reins tightly in his right fist. The bike is suspended in the air (might be ropes with magic on them), and he struggles to keep it upright. He doesn’t hold on for long, and he’s pulled forward, nearly falling off the entire building in the process. The motorbike goes flying, hitting the barrier wall, and landing on the ground, not hitting anybody, as everyone around jumped out of the way just in time.

I turn my attention back towards Riven. He lies close by, unmoving, while another person kneels next to him, seeming to check on him. The person (it seems like a woman from the voice) calls for a doctor. I move closer, detransforming, trying to get closer. The person takes their helmet off, just as Riven seems to stir. And that’s when I realize the familiarity of the person next to me.

“Hey!” I cry. “You were the person who gave me the helmet! You set me up!”

“What? No!” she cries, and I realize it’s Darcy. How could I have been so stupid? The woman who gave me the helmet looked nearly identical to her! “You’re the one who did this.”

“Me?” Riven tries to stand up, but Darcy pushes him back down. “Don’t move from there,” she says. “You’re hurt.”

I can only stand by and watch.

Riven stares at Darcy, seeming to examine her, and his cheeks grow pink. I go closer. “Riven, don’t listen to anything she says. She’s the one that made this happen to you.”

Riven’s face suddenly contorts to one of anger and confusion. “ _Her_? I recall seeing _you_ right as it started to happen! Was this all just an elaborate prank to stop me from winning?” He changes his attention to Brandon, Sky, and Stella who came walking near. “This was all planned, wasn’t it? I need you were low, but _this_ low.”

“Riven, we didn’t do anything. It was an accident,” Brandon says, but Riven doesn’t buy it.

“Of course, you would say that! Prince and squire don’t like admitting their assholery. I’m glad I left y’all a long time ago.” He spits at them, and I move back.

People who seem to be police officers (dressed in strange outfits. Oranges and yellows and blues) and doctors come on sight. “What happened here? Who is responsible?” asked one of the officers.

“Her,” I say, pointing at Darcy. “She and her little crew of witches. I can point all of them out.”

“I haven’t done a thing, little _fairy_ ,” Darcy hisses. “And Riven was right.” She swings Riven’s arm around her shoulder, helping him up. “You were the last person he saw before it all happened. And you were dressed in your little fairy suit, too, where you can use the most power. You even shot a spell at him.”

“That was because _you_ bumped into me! And something that had happened to his helmet. The one _you_ gave me.”

“The evidence doesn’t go in your favor, Bloom,” Brandon says. “They’re right… You were the last person he saw. And you were transformed, too.”

I stare at him incredulously. I didn’t do this. I’m being framed. This _can’t_ be happening! Am I gonna go to jail? “Brandon, I didn’t do anything! The Trix; they’re here. They’re right over…” My voice trails off when I notice the other two witches are completely out of sight. Gone from the place I originally saw them. I got played like a violin.

“This might be considered attempted murder,” one of the female officers says. “We might have to take the fairy in.”

“I didn’t do anything! You can’t arrest me!”

“We might not jail you, but interference with the race in this manner is an offense.” She comes to approach me, but a voice stops her.

“Don’t go anywhere nearer to Miss Peters, Officer Commonwoods.”

I turn my head. Fogsky walks towards us, paying more attention to his notebook than anything else, looking more serious than before. “She hasn’t done anything wrong in this situation, and neither has the other girl.”

Officer Commonwoods looks surprised. “Detective Fogsky. I didn’t think you’d be here.”

“Well, with a husband off on a foreign adventure and nothing in the crime department, I have to find a way to entertain myself somehow. And Miss Peters in now my employee. I stand with her. Nobody is guilty, and nobody is being taken in.”

“But sir—”

“Officer Commonwoods, this is not up for discussion.” And he means it.

I feel terrible.

* * *

The fireworks go off late into the night by the area close to the Magix Lake, but I can’t stop playing the events of today in my head. Riven hasn’t shown up since the fiasco, but last I saw him, he was being patched up with Darcy, getting all friendly with her. I think of Musa.

Brandon has been kinda quiet, too. We’re all kinda quiet. The fireworks aren’t as exciting since everything else has been kinda crappy.

At least Helia’s happy. Well, happy in not the visible way. But there’s a bit of a smile on his face as he lets his origami animals play in the grass and in the sky. He hums to himself, holding an icepack to his nose.

Halfway into the fireworks show, Stella says, “My parents are getting a divorce.”

I look at her, surprised and concerned. “Huh?”

Stella turns away from me. “That’s what was going on. My parents are finally getting a divorce. After so many years of fighting.”

“Oh.” I reach out to touch her shoulder, scared she’ll pull away, but she seems to lean into my touch. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m fine,” she says. “I’ve been expecting it anyway. They’ve been arguing since I was born.” She sighs. “If they’re both happy without each other… So be it.”

She goes silent, but I don’t remove my hand. I pull into a sideways hug. She laughs lightly. “I might have to call Flora. You’re sorta doing her job.”

I laugh as well. “Guess I’ll take the substitute Flora job whenever she’s not around.”

We sit in silence, watching the fireworks, and I feel slightly happier. Then, I nearly jump a foot in the air when a voice behind me says, “I knew there was something suspicious about those witches. Glad I wrote it down.”

Fogsky stands behind me, looking just as strange as when I first met him. “They didn’t seem very trustworthy.”

“Do you mean the Trix? Err—with the white-haired one, the one with the perm, and the one who mainly saw today?” Fogsky nods. “Then, yep. They’re not. I’ve had problems with them a lot. I don’t think they’ll be a day when I _don’t_ see them.”

“Sometimes, your intuition is much better than your brain. I’m keeping a tab on them. You know, this day was better than I thought.”

“It was?” I ask.

“Yep.” He smiles, his eyes nearly blinding me in the darkest. “I finally have a case _and_ a new housekeeper!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one took me forever.


End file.
